Debt burden is moderate, so it can be affected by the economic cycle.
Metrics · D/E ~74% · Current Ratio 0.64
💲Is the price expensive now?
Not cheap (fair to slightly pricey)
Because it is a good, popular company, those expectations are already priced in.
Metrics · P/E 18.5 · P/B 3.5
💡Largest U.S. brokerage, holding $13T client assets. ROE 20.3% and 50.2% pretax margin are 10-yr highs. Liquidity/leverage ratios follow the bank-holding model.
Compiled from public financial data. Not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. · Source: stockanalysis (margins, P/B, ROE are TTM; as a bank holding company, current ratio and leverage read differently than for an industrial), as of 2026-07-23
Business Summary · Key Value Metrics
The largest U.S. online brokerage and wealth manager, custodian of $13.08 trillion in client assets (Q2 2026). It earns from net interest revenue on client cash, asset-management fees, and trading commissions. The 2020 TD Ameritrade acquisition scaled the franchise. TTM revenue $26.0B, ROE 20.3%, net margin 38.8%.
Current Price
$101.61
+0.8%+$0.81· Close 2026-07-23
Analyst Consensus Target (external reference)
$124.21
Avg. of 21 external analysts · stockanalysis (21-analyst consensus, Buy · high $145 / low $86)
P/E (TTM)
18.5x
TTM
ROE
20.3%
TTM · 10-year high
Pretax margin
50.2%
TTM · brokerage basis
P/B
3.52x
reflects 20% ROE
Dividend yield
1.26%
quarterly dividend
Market cap
$176.7B
as of 2026-07-23
Economic Moat · Key Business Segments
SCHW custodies $13.08 trillion of client assets (Q2 2026), and that scale is itself the barrier. The core earnings engine is net interest revenue on cash clients leave in their accounts, so a larger asset base compounds structurally. The 2020 TD Ameritrade acquisition locked in retail brokerage share, and Q2 2026 alone added 1.4 million new brokerage accounts and $120 billion of core net new assets (Source: company IR, stockanalysis).
Scale of custodied assets
$13.08T in client assets. Since deploying client cash drives earnings, scale converts directly into profit.
Switching costs
Account transfers, cost-basis history, and linked transfers keep clients from moving.
TD Ameritrade integration
The 2020 deal secured both retail share and a trading platform.
Regulatory licensing
The combined broker-and-bank structure is hard for a new entrant to replicate.
10-Year Financial Trends
Revenue compounded at a 9-year CAGR of +13.8% ($7.5B in 2016 to $23.9B in 2025), net income +18.7%, EPS +15.1%. The 2020 TD Ameritrade deal lifted 2021 revenue to $18.5B, but equity ballooned to $56.1B and diluted ROE to 10.4%. In 2022 a rate spike drove bond marks against equity, cutting it from $56.3B to $36.6B; in 2023 clients shifted cash to higher-yielding products (cash sorting), so revenue fell 9% and pretax margin hit 33.9%. By 2025: revenue $23.9B, pretax margin 47.9%, ROE 18.1%. Q2 2026 (July 21): revenue $7.07B (+21% YoY), diluted EPS $1.54 (Source: SEC EDGAR, stockanalysis).
9-Year CAGR: Revenue +13.8% · Operating Income +16.1% (pretax income) · Net Income +18.7% · EPS +15.1%
Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K (revenue, pretax income, net income, diluted EPS, equity); fiscal year-end closes from Yahoo Finance; cross-checked against stockanalysis. P/E is year-end close ÷ diluted EPS and ROE is net income ÷ average equity; both match stockanalysis for all five overlapping years (2021-2025). As a broker/bank holding company, pretax income replaces the operating-income line.
Mega-Cap Value Metric Comparison
SCHW trades at 18.5x earnings, below Interactive Brokers (36.0x) and near Morgan Stanley (17.4x). Its 20.3% ROE trails IBKR's 24.0%, but the $13.08 trillion of custodied client assets dwarfs IBKR's base. IBKR's 78.0% operating margin is far higher because its automated self-service model carries little headcount or branch cost (Source: stockanalysis, company IR).
Metric
★ SCHW
IBKR
MS
P/E (TTM)
18.5
36.0
17.4
ROE
20.3%
24.0%
—
Revenue (TTM)
$26.0B
$6.8B
$77.8B
Dividend yield
1.26%
0.39%
2.16%
P/E, ROE, revenue are TTM · Source: stockanalysis, retrieved 2026-07-24.
Key Risk Factors (from 10-K)
●
Earnings may be at a cyclical peak— The 2025 pretax margin of 47.9% and 18.1% ROE are both 10-year highs. A P/E of 18.5 sits at the low end of its own 10-year range of year-end multiples (17.0-31.9x), which looks cheap — but if the denominator is peak-cycle earnings, falling rates would compress profit first and lift the multiple after the fact.Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K (year-end P/E computed in-house), stockanalysis
●
Net interest revenue falls with rates— A large share of earnings is the spread on client cash, so falling rates hit directly. Cash sorting already cut revenue 9% in 2023.Source: company 10-K
●
Marks on the bond portfolio— The 2022 rate spike drove bond losses through equity, cutting it from $56.3B to $36.6B. A renewed rate rise could repeat that path.Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K
●
Fee competition— With zero commissions now the industry standard, competition for client accounts against newer platforms such as Robinhood continues.Source: company 10-K
✦ ValueCrab Dashboard PreviewSCHW $101.61 +0.8% · as of 2026-07-23
Q. What are the key value metrics for Charles Schwab (SCHW)?P/E (TTM) 18.5, ROE 20.3%, pretax margin 50.2%, P/B 3.52, dividend yield 1.26%, and a 9-year EPS CAGR of +15.1% (Source: stockanalysis, SEC EDGAR, as of 2026-07-23).
Q. How should a brokerage be evaluated?Client assets under custody, net interest margin, and net new assets are the core measures. SCHW holds $13.08 trillion and added $120B of core net new assets plus 1.4 million accounts in Q2 2026. Current ratio and leverage should not be read on industrial-company terms, given the bank-holding structure.
Q. Why did results weaken in 2023?As rates rose, clients shifted idle brokerage cash into money-market funds and similar products — known as cash sorting. Lower deposits compressed net interest revenue, so 2023 revenue fell 9% and pretax margin slid to 33.9%. It recovered to 47.9% in 2025.
Q. Why was ROE so low in 2020-2021?Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade with stock in 2020, lifting equity from $21.7B to $56.1B. The larger denominator diluted ROE to 8.5% (2020) and 10.4% (2021); as earnings caught up, ROE reached 18.1% by 2025.