For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to SCHW for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
The Charles Schwab Corporation's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at The Charles Schwab Corporation's main business drivers.
Headquartered in Westlake, TX, The Charles Schwab Corporation is a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody and financial advisory services. The company has nearly 400 branches across 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as locations in Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The company's main subsidiaries include Charles Schwab & Co. (securities broker-dealer), Charles Schwab Investment Management (an investment advisor for Schwab's proprietary mutual funds and Schwab’s exchange-traded funds or ETFs) and Charles Schwab Bank (a federal savings bank).
Schwab provides financial services to individuals and institutions through two reportable segments – Investor Services and Advisor Services.
The Investor Services segment (comprising 56.6% of total client assets in 2024) offers retail brokerage, investment advisory, and banking and trust services as well as retirement plan and corporate brokerage services. Through this segment, the company offers research, analytic tools, online portfolio planning tools, performance reports, market analysis and educational material to its clients.
The Advisor Services segment (43.4%) offers custodial, trading, banking and trust, and support services, as well as retirement business services to independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), independent retirement advisors and record-keepers.
In May 2020, Schwab acquired certain assets of USAA’s Investment Management Company, including brokerage and managed portfolio accounts. In June, it acquired Motif’s technology and intellectual property assets, while in July, it acquired Naples, FL-based Wasmer, Schroeder & Company. In October, the company completed the buyout of TD Ameritrade (TDA), leading to the formation of a behemoth in the brokerage industry.
As of Sept. 30, 2025, Schwab had 38 million active brokerage accounts, 2.2 million banking accounts and 5.6 million workplace plan participant accounts.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in The Charles Schwab Corporation, ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in January 2016 would be worth $3,624.47, or a gain of 262.45%, as of January 15, 2026, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
The S&P 500 rose 260.42% and the price of gold increased 313.45% over the same time frame in comparison.
Analysts are anticipating more upside for SCHW.
Shares of Schwab have underperformed the industry in the past six months. Expenses will likely remain elevated amid continued investments in marketing, thus hurting the bottom line. We expect expenses to witness a CAGR of 7% by 2027. The uncertainty about the performance of the capital markets is another concern. Nevertheless, Strategic buyouts (including the deal to buy Forge Global) and branch expansion efforts amid favorable market conditions will likely drive client assets. We estimate total client assets to witness a CAGR of 8.2% by 2027. Despite the rate cuts in 2025 along with expectations of more, relatively higher rates and an increased focus on repaying high-cost bank supplemental funding balances will support net interest margin (NIM). A solid balance sheet and liquidity position will enable sustainable capital distribution activities.
The stock has jumped 5.50% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 8 higher, for fiscal 2025; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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