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).
10-Year Growth
Revenue$23.9B · CAGR +13.8%
Operating Income$11.5B · CAGR +16.1%
EPS$4.65 · CAGR +15.1%
10-Year Valuation
P/E (year-end)21.5x · avg 24.9x
ROE18.1% · avg 14.1%
Operating Margin47.9% · avg 41.7%
📊 Annual Data Table (SCHW) — expand/collapse
Year
Revenue (B$)
Op. Income (B$)
EPS ($)
P/E (x)
ROE (%)
Op. Margin (%)
2016
7.48
2.99
1.31
30.1
12.7
40
2017
8.62
3.65
1.61
31.9
13.5
42.4
2018
10.13
4.56
2.45
17
17.9
45
2019
10.72
4.85
2.67
17.8
17.5
45.2
2020
11.69
4.3
2.12
25
8.5
36.8
2021
18.52
7.71
2.83
29.7
10.4
41.6
2022
20.76
9.39
3.5
23.8
15.5
45.2
2023
18.84
6.38
2.54
27.1
13.1
33.9
2024
19.61
7.69
2.99
24.8
13.3
39.2
2025
23.92
11.46
4.65
21.5
18.1
47.9
— = no data for that year/metric (P/E omitted before EPS turned positive)
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.