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Schwab Posts Record Quarter on Surge in Retail Trading

A stronger revenue outlook raises questions about the durability of trade-driven fees as client margin borrowing climbs.

Overview

  • The company disclosed Tuesday that second-quarter net revenue hit about $7.1 billion and adjusted EPS was $1.62, sending net income up 32% to $2.8 billion on a 57% jump in daily trades to 11.9 million.
  • Schwab added roughly 1.4 million brokerage accounts to reach about 48 million total accounts and reported total client assets near $13.1 trillion with core net new assets of about $120 billion.
  • The firm began direct spot trading for Bitcoin and Ether through Schwab Crypto and introduced Portfolio Insights, a generative-AI tool that summarizes portfolio moves for clients.
  • Customer margin balances climbed to about $165 billion, a sharp rise that analysts flagged as a risk, and the stock showed little upside after the report as investors questioned how sustainable event-driven trading is.
  • Management raised full-year revenue growth guidance to roughly 17.5%–18.5%, a move that positions Schwab to benefit if high trading and interest income persist but also draws regulator and competitor attention to rising retail leverage and new crypto and AI features.