Schwab posts record earnings as retail trading powers on

Charles Schwab Corp. reported record earnings per share in the third quarter as clients opened new brokerage accounts and traded more amid volatile markets.

Adjusted earnings of 84 cents a share topped the 80-cent average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Customers opened 1.2 million retail brokerage accounts, almost double the number added in the same period a year earlier, the company said Friday in a statement. 

Average daily trades almost quadrupled to 5.5 million from a year earlier but fell from the previous quarter’s 6 million level.

Schwab is the largest U.S. brokerage, with $7.6 trillion in client assets, after buying TD Ameritrade last year. The Covid-19 pandemic brought a boom in retail trading that lifted major brokerages as well as upstart rivals such as Robinhood Markets Inc., which had roughly 22.5 million funded accounts at the end of June. About 32.7 million people have brokerage accounts with Schwab.

Schwab’s trading revenue of $964 million was more than five times its level a year earlier. That helped boost overall net revenue 87%, to $4.6 billion.

Shares of the brokerage, which have climbed 53% this year, rose 3.6% to a record $80.90 at 10:15 a.m. in New York.