By Andrew Welsch
Charles Schwab stock jumped Friday after the wealth management company turned in a report card showing a strong start to the year.
In its monthly activity report issued Friday morning, the Westlake, Texas-based company said it now expects first-quarter revenue growth to accelerate to about 16% because of robust customer engagement. That is running ahead of the 9.5% to 10.5% full-year growth target Schwab issued in January. The report also revealed growth in assets and client trading activity.
Investors appeared to like the news and bid up Schwab shares by 2.5% shortly after noon Friday. The benchmark S&P 500 index was down 0.3% amid weak economic news; the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation climbed to its highest level since 2024 while fourth-quarter GDP growth was cut in half to just 0.7%.
Although this year has been marked by geopolitical upheaval and market volatility, Schwab's report showed robust investor activity. Customers opened 395,000 new brokerage accounts, a 9% increase year over year. Daily average trades hit a record 9.9 million. Client margin loan balances also hit a record, $120.6 billion, up 7% from year end.
The monthly activity report also showed Schwab picked up $32.5 billion in core net new assets in February. That is down from $48 billion for February 2025, although last month's figure includes a $17.5 billion outflow from a planned exit of a mutual fund clearing client, according to Schwab. Total client assets reached $12.22 trillion as of the end of February, up 19% year over year.
William Blair analyst Jeff Schmitt writes in a March 13 research note that Schwab's net new asset haul for February augurs well for the company. "We continue to believe that organic growth will trend to 5.5% for full year 2026, driven by increasing engagement from legacy Ameritrade customers, strong growth in managed solutions, and continued strength in advisory as it expands product offerings, opens new branches, and adds more financial consultants," he writes.
Schwab continues to expand its wealth management offerings, and it also plans to soon enable customers to directly hold cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Wealth management companies and brokerage firms benefited last year from a bull market that lifted assets under management and enticed investors to open new accounts and use margin, meaning they borrowed from their brokerage firms to buy stocks. Total margin debt hit a record $1.28 trillion as of January, according to data from industry self-regulatory organization Finra.
Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 13, 2026 12:39 ET (16:39 GMT)
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