Interactive Brokers Group Inc.
's (
IBKR
) Electronic Brokerage segment has announced its monthly brokerage
data for February 2012. The segment under review clears and settles
trades globally for both individual and institutional clients.
Interactive's total customer accounts for February were 192,200,
up 17% from 164,200 in February 2011 and 1% from 190,600 in January
2012. Moreover, total customer Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs)
rose 5% from the prior-year month and 7% from the prior month to
449,000.
Further, during February, Interactive recorded increased Cleared
Customer DARTs of 410,000 compared with 388,000 in February 2011
and 381,000 in January 2012. On an annualized basis, the company
reported Cleared Average DART per customer account of 537,000, down
from 601,000 in the comparable month last year, but up from 504,000
recorded in the previous month.
Interactive's total options contracts fell 6% from the
prior-year month to 20,363 in February 2012, but remained at par
with the prior month. However, during the reported month, the
company's futures contracts totaled 6,164, rising 2% from 6,018 in
the year-ago month and 5% from 5,847 in the previous month.
Interactive also released period-end statistics for customer
equity, customer credit balances and customer margin loan balances.
For the period ended February 2012, customer equity stood at $28.3
billion, growing 18% year over year and 4% sequentially.
Additionally, Interactive's Electronic Brokerage segment
recorded customer margin loan balances of $8.2 billion in the
reported month, increasing marginally by 1% year over year and
rising substantially by 11% sequentially. The company's customer
credit balances of $18.8 billion at February 2012-end jumped 19%
from $15.8 billion at February 2011-end and grew 7% from $17.6
billion at January 2012-end.
Though Interactive's fundamentals remain strong with a liquid
balance sheet, sturdy capital base and high barriers to entry, we
are concerned about the Market Making segment's ability to
consistently generate sufficient returns for funding the dividend
payments. Continued strong performance of Interactive's brokerage
business and the restoring of quarterly dividend were quite
impressive. However, its dependence on IBG LLC and its wide
international exposure is a matter of trepidation.
Currently, Interactive retains a Zacks #3 Rank (a short-term
'Hold' rating). Similarly, one of its peers,
Knight Capital Group Inc.
(
KCG
) retains a Zacks # 3 Rank.
INTERACTIVE BRK (
IBKR
): Free Stock Analysis Report
KNIGHT CAP GP (
KCG
): Free Stock Analysis Report
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