Schwab among the bidders for LPL: website

Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. continued to climb today after a market website, StreetInsider.com, reported late Wednesday that the Charles Schwab Corp. was one of the bidders for the company. The website said that it based its report on an unnamed source. As of 1:29 p.m. ET, shares of LPL Financial had risen 3.28% to $39.71. Volume was also up significantly. Over the past month, LPL's share price has increased close to 31%, first on speculation of a possible sale and then in reaction to Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election. An LPL spokesman, Jeff Mochal, said that, as a matter of policy, the firm does not comment on rumors or speculation. A Schwab spokesman, Greg Gable, said the company also does not comment on rumor or speculation. Reuters in October reported that LPL, the largest independent broker-dealer with more than 14,000 reps and advisers, was exploring a sale. Citing two anonymous sources, InvestmentNews then reported that after it received an unsolicited offer from a potential buyer that it considered low, LPL Financial hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to evaluate the bid. In an environment where securities firms like LPL are seeing sharp declines in commission revenues from a slowdown in sales in products like nontraded real estate investment trusts and variable annuities, LPL has been in a rough patch. For example, LPL in August told its employees they were not getting raises. LPL, like its competitors, has also been dealing with increasing compliance expenses and the move to shift away from high commission products to prepare for the coming Department of Labor fiduciary rule, which is scheduled to take effect in April and impacts how advisers work with clients' retirement accounts. (More: LPL Financial's problems keep piling up )