Charles Schwab Corp. announced Thursday that it posted a 51% increase in net income to $319 million in 2013's fourth quarter compared with 2012's fourth quarter, and a 10% increase in earnings from the third quarter of 2013. Quarterly revenue of $1.435 billion was up 18% from 2012's fourth quarter.
For the full year, Schwab had net income of $1.071 billion, an increase of 15% over 2012, on an 11% increase in revenue to $5.435 billion.
Fourth quarter earnings per share were up 53% to $0.23, while full-year earnings were up 13% to $0.78 per share. Zacks' consensus EPS estimates for SCHW were $0.21 for the quarter, with annual revenue estimates at $5.39 billion.
In a statement, Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger noted the company's 25% increase over the prior year in core net new assets, to $140.8 billion, and said Schwab ended the year with 9.1 million active brokerage accounts. Bettinger also reported that "of the record $2.25 trillion in assets entrusted to us by clients as of Dec. 31, 2013, approximately half are receiving some form of ongoing advisory service, with $946 billion under the guidance of an independent advisor and $155 billion in client assets enrolled in one of our retail advisory solutions, increases of 20% and 22%, respectively."
