Charles Schwab Stock (NYSE: SCHW) News, Forecasts & Analysis — November Asset Inflows, Forge Deal, and Crypto Plans (Dec. 12, 2025)

Charles Schwab (SCHW) stock is in focus on Dec. 12, 2025 after the company posted November monthly activity highlights, including $40.4B in core net new assets and $11.83T in client assets. Here’s the latest news, analyst forecasts, and what to watch before Q4 earnings.

Published: December 12, 2025
Company: The Charles Schwab Corporation (The)
Ticker: NYSE: SCHW

Charles Schwab stock price today (Dec. 12, 2025)

Charles Schwab shares were $95.99, down $1.42 (-1.46%) in late U.S. trading on Friday (Dec. 12, 2025), giving the company a market capitalization of about $169.8 billion.

The stock has been trading within striking distance of its 52-week high ($99.59), a level MarketWatch reported was set on July 29. ^[1]

What’s driving SCHW stock right now: Schwab’s November monthly activity report

The biggest company-specific catalyst landing today (Dec. 12) is Schwab’s Monthly Activity Report for November 2025—a recurring update that investors use as a real-time read on the firm’s “engine room”: asset gathering, client engagement, and cash sorting.

In its release, Schwab highlighted:

Core net new assets:$40.4 billion in November, up 40% versus November 2024; $440.3 billion year-to-date ^[2]
Total client assets:$11.83 trillion at Nov. 30, up 15% year over year and flat vs. October ^[3]
New brokerage accounts:365,000 opened in November (more than 4.2 million year-to-date) ^[4]
Daily average trades:8.46 million (continued strong engagement) ^[5]
Average margin loan balances:$108.9 billion, up 8% month over month ^[6]
Transactional sweep cash:$427.5 billion, down $1.3 billion in November ^[7]

Why these numbers matter for Schwab’s stock

Schwab’s business model is leveraged to three big “volume” variables:

Client assets (drives asset-based fees and overall platform economics)
Trading activity (drives transaction-related revenue and engagement signals)
Client cash and cash migration (a major driver of net interest revenue dynamics)

That’s why a monthly report showing strong core net new assets and multi-million daily trades tends to get attention: it suggests Schwab’s platform is still pulling in assets and keeping clients active—even as investors remain sensitive to macro uncertainty and rate expectations.

The cash question: sweep balances and deposit-related signals remain in focus

One of the most scrutinized themes for Schwab since the 2022–2023 rate shock has been the “where is client cash going?” debate—often described as cash sorting, as clients move from low-yield sweep features into higher-yield alternatives.

In the November activity tables, Schwab reported average bank deposit account balances of $73.803 billion (in the table’s “Selected Average Balances”), down 3% from October and down 13% year over year. ^[8]

That same report also showed transactional sweep cash ending November at $427.5 billion, down $1.3 billion in the month. ^[9]

Investors generally interpret these lines as part of the ongoing tug-of-war between:

asset gathering and market engagement (which can lift balances), and
clients optimizing yield (which can pressure certain cash buckets)

Strategic growth: Forge acquisition and the next wave of product expansion

Schwab’s CEO says more M&A is on the table

At the Reuters NEXT conference earlier this month, CEO Rick Wurster said Schwab will keep an eye out for additional acquisitions, emphasizing that the firm’s scale can amplify the value of new capabilities across its client base. ^[10]

He also pointed back to Schwab’s agreement to buy Forge Global for $660 million, a move aimed at capturing demand for access to pre-IPO/private company shares. ^[11]

Crypto is becoming a nearer-term catalyst

Wurster also told Reuters that Schwab aims to offer spot crypto trading in the first half of 2026, starting with internal testing and a limited client rollout before broad availability. ^[12]

For SCHW investors, this matters for two reasons:

It signals Schwab is willing to expand beyond traditional brokerage/wealth rails when client demand is clear.
Crypto functionality could be an engagement and asset-retention lever—though it also introduces regulatory, execution, and reputational considerations.

Balance sheet and credit backdrop: senior notes, dividends, and rating outlook

$2 billion senior notes issuance

Schwab disclosed it issued $2.0 billion of fixed-to-floating rate senior notes:

$1.0B of 4.343% notes due 2031, and
$1.0B of 4.914% notes due 2036,
with net proceeds of about $1.986B after expenses. ^[13]

Dividend remains $0.27 per share

Schwab’s board declared its regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.27 per common share, payable Nov. 28, 2025 to holders of record as of Nov. 14, 2025. ^[14]

S&P revised Schwab’s outlook to positive

S&P Global Ratings revised Schwab’s outlook to positive from stable and affirmed its A-/A-2 issuer credit ratings (announcement dated Oct. 31, 2025). ^[15]

Taken together, these items feed into the market’s ongoing effort to handicap Schwab’s interest-rate risk positioning, liquidity posture, and long-run earnings power.

Wall Street forecast for SCHW: price targets, ratings, and earnings expectations

Analyst views on Schwab remain mixed—but broadly constructive on the medium-term trajectory as the company exits a period of rate-driven balance sheet pressure.

Consensus price target snapshot

A Fintel summary published via Nasdaq noted that as of Dec. 5, 2025, the average one-year price target for Schwab was $112.20, with a range from $88.88 (low) to $145.95 (high). ^[16]

Notably, that same Nasdaq/Fintel item also referenced BofA Securities maintaining an Underperform recommendation (Dec. 10). ^[17]

UBS turns bullish: long-term margin and growth expectations

UBS assumed coverage with a Buy rating and outlined a longer-run improvement path, including expectations for net new asset growth moving into the 5–7% range by 2027 and operating margins trending to the mid-50s by 2028. ^[18]

Zacks/Nasdaq view: valuation + upward estimate revisions

A Nasdaq-published Zacks piece framed Schwab as a value-style idea, citing a forward P/E around 20.18 and noting that 12 analysts raised fiscal 2025 earnings estimates over the last 60 days, with a consensus estimate of $4.81 per share (per that report). ^[19]

How to read this mix:

Bulls point to scale, asset gathering, engagement, and improving rate-risk management.
Bears focus on competitive pressure, cash sorting sensitivity, and valuation as the stock nears highs.

Legal and regulatory watch: TD Ameritrade merger antitrust case settlement

In late November, a federal judge in Texas granted final approval to a settlement tied to claims that Schwab’s TD Ameritrade merger violated antitrust law—approving a deal centered on non-monetary benefits (including an antitrust compliance program) and awarding $8.25 million in attorneys’ fees, according to Reuters. ^[20]

Reuters reported the plaintiffs argued the compliance program could yield $10.7 million to $14.5 million in monthly savings for retail customers through improved trade execution (“price improvement”). ^[21]

This is not typically a day-to-day trading driver for SCHW, but it remains part of the broader regulatory and litigation backdrop investors monitor for large brokerage platforms.

Macro + sentiment: why market volatility and retail behavior still matter to Schwab

Schwab is unusually sensitive to market “temperature” because investor sentiment affects:

trading volumes,
asset flows,
and what clients do with cash.

Reuters reported in November that retail investors were showing less conviction in buying market dips; Schwab’s head of trading and derivatives strategy Joe Mazzola said retail dip-buying interest was “moderating,” though still present. ^[22]

Meanwhile, Schwab’s own research outlook for 2026 (as reported by MarketWatch) expects stocks to “churn higher” with sticky inflation risks and broader sector rotation—conditions that can support engagement but also raise volatility and risk-management questions. ^[23]

Next catalyst: Q4 earnings timing and what investors will look for

Schwab’s Investor Relations site says the firm typically releases quarterly earnings around the 13th business day of January, April, July, and October—and lists the week of Jan. 19, 2026 for Q4 2025 Earnings/December Monthly Activity Report, with an anticipated date around Jan. 21. ^[24]

Nasdaq’s earnings page lists an estimated earnings date of Jan. 20, 2026. ^[25]

Key questions likely to dominate that event

Investors will likely focus on:

Trajectory of net new assets into year-end
Cash sorting direction (sweep balances, deposit-related signals)
Trends in trading activity and margin balances
Updates on the Forge acquisition timeline and integration plans
Specific milestones for spot crypto trading rollout in 1H 2026

Bottom line for SCHW stock on Dec. 12, 2025

Charles Schwab stock is ending the week with investor attention firmly on the company’s November activity pulse: $40.4B in core net new assets, $11.83T in client assets, and strong trading activity—paired with a strategic narrative that includes the Forge acquisition and a planned move into spot crypto trading in 2026. ^[26]

Analyst forecasts continue to point to upside on average, but the dispersion in ratings and targets underscores that the debate is no longer “will Schwab stabilize?”—it’s “how much earnings power returns as rates, cash behavior, and platform growth normalize?”