Decent results out today and a good divi 11p (not checked the cover yet though), has and should benefit from an up and down market.

Worth keeping an eye on perhaps, what do you think?

What goes up gotta come down but ......how far.,.

Chickened out and sold up at 674, nice profit for now.,.

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group Holdings has issued a statement on the exceptional announcement by the Swiss National Bank, which resulted in a sudden and extreme movement in the value of the Swiss franc.

IG says the precise level of the impact will be partially dependent on the company's ability to recover client debts, but in total it will not exceed £30m, from market and credit exposure.

The market exposure occurred where client positions were closed at a more beneficial level than the company was able to close its entire corresponding hedge due to the market dislocation.

This occurs against the backdrop of very strong recent and current performance and IG's extremely robust financial position.

As scheduled, on 20 January, IG will present its results for the first six months of the 2015 year, and will provide an update on progress on its strategic initiatives.

I almost feel sorry for them..................

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group Holdings reports strong first half results despite a very subdued first quarter.

Net trading revenue for the six months to the end of November was up 8% at £197.4m and profit before tax rose by 2.8% to £101.4m.

Chief executive Tim Howkins said: "IG delivered another very strong set of results, with record revenue in the half year after a subdued first quarter. We also made good progress with our ongoing investment in strategic initiatives designed to drive future growth, including the launch of stockbroking in the UK and the opening of a new office in Switzerland.

"In November we celebrated IG's 40th anniversary. It was a great pleasure to be joined in those celebrations by a number of clients who have been active with us for a large portion of those 40 years. In what has recently become a very challenging time for the industry, IG's strong financial position and commitment to service should provide both existing and new clients with reassurance that we remain the number one trading partner.

"I believe that the initiatives we are embarked upon provide clear evidence that, after 40 years, our ambition to drive forward and develop the business is as strong as it has ever been."

StockMarketWire.com
Online trading company IG Group's third quarter revenues fell by 5.1% to £91.8m after the Swiss National Bank decided to remove the ceiling for the Swiss franc against the euro in January.

But it says that excluding this, underlying revenue rose 7.1% to £103.6m.

IG said the sudden Swiss franc movement also resulted in client debts of £18.4m. It says that while half of the debtor accounts have now been settled, this relates to only a small proportion of the original £18.4m and the majority of remaining debtors may not be in a financial position to clear their debt in full.

Revenue in the UK and Australia was ahead by almost 9% and 16% respectively, primarily due to strong growth in average revenue per client, but with both regions also posting their second consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth in client numbers.

In Europe revenue was behind by just over 3%, as the strong year-on-year increase in client numbers was more than offset by a fall in average revenue per client. In Rest of World, revenue was ahead by 9%, with growth in all countries. Active clients numbers were ahead by 13%, with particular strength in the US and South Africa.

The group's execution-only stockbroking business, which was launched in the UK in the second quarter, continued to grow well. At the end of February, IG had over 2,600 funded stockbroking accounts, of which around 70% are clients new to IG.

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group remains on track to deliver against full year financial expectations, a pre-close trading update for the year ending 31 May says.

IG says that importantly it also made good strategic progress over the period, extending its stockbroking offering into the Netherlands and receiving approval in-principle of its regulatory licence in Dubai towards the end of May, which should enable full authorisation and the opening of its office there in the coming weeks.

Liberum note today:
"IG has built an enviable market position in spread betting and CFD trading. However, we consider it to be a mature business that is struggling to grow in a meaningful fashion. Depending on your view, expansion into stockbroking could be considered proof of this, or a natural development of the franchise. Whatever the case, new initiatives are required to help drive the business forward. The agreement with Blackrock to sell ETF’s, announced this morning, is an indication that the business is exploring new ways to grow. We suspect this might contribute to a reduction in income per client.
Results broadly in-line
Results appear to be in-line with consensus. The impact of the Swiss franc debacle in Jan’15, resulted in a £12m hit to revenue and a £15m (net of recoveries) increase in bad debts. Consequently, PBT was -13% at £169.5m and EPS -11% at 36.0p. However, even on an underlying basis (excluding impact of Swiss Franc), Adj. PBT was -1% at £193.2m. The DPS was held at 28.15p. The DPS policy (payout ratio 70%) remains in place.
KPI’s illustrate the challenges
Active clients were +8% YoY, split 3% in H1 and 10% in H2. We suspect the stronger growth in H2 was partly driven by the increased volatility caused by the Swiss Franc move. Revenue per client for the year was flat. In the last few years, management has concentrated on increasing the value of clients, in the main by shedding lower value, uneconomic clients. The stabilization in the current year might indicate that process has run its course.
CEO retiring
After 16 years, Tim Howkins (CEO) has announced his retirement. We do not view this as cause for concern. His contribution, as CFO and CEO, has been invaluable during a period of strong expansion. We believe the growth outlook for the business is challenging and as such, the current valuation looks too rich. The stock trades on a FY16f PE of 18.9x, falling to 17.8x and yields 3.7%. Until we get more comfort on growth initiatives we retain the Hold recommendation."

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group's revenue in the first quarter was £106.0m, 24% ahead of the corresponding period last year, which was particularly subdued.

In what is traditionally a relatively quiet period for the business, the financial markets presented a range of trading opportunities for clients, responding to news flow, including around the Greek eurozone membership debate and the current state of the Chinese economy.

IGG says that although the performance was good in all months in the quarter, client activity levels were at their highest during the second half of August.

Looking ahead, the group says this strong start to the year positions the business well to deliver against full year expectations. However, it is impossible to predict the market conditions for the rest of the year and therefore too early to draw many conclusions.

IG has a clear strategy and will continue to execute against its priorities, which this financial year include rolling out the stockbroking offering to additional countries, launching ETF portfolios, delivering further improvements in the client conversion process and moving the mobile interface forward.

Barclays note today:
Revenue performance was strong, but active client growth is more eye catching. As often happens in more volatile markets, IG performed well in Q1 with revenue of £106m, growth of 24% vs the prior year. This is the company’s second best quarter ever. Growth was achieved against relatively easy comparatives, where Q1 FY15 revenue of £85.6m was just 21.3% of FY15 revenue (pre-SNB), vs the long term average of 22.5%. More impressive and much more relevant to the long term investment thesis is the growth in active clients in the quarter. Across the group this was +19% year on year, and +4.9% quarter on quarter. This strong growth will have partly been driven by the market volatility but we believe is also a reflection of the initiatives relating to digital marketing and the client conversion process. We believe most of the improvement in active clients from company led initiatives is via improved marketing rather than improved conversion rates. One factor that has dragged up active client growth is first trades, which have grown by 50% in Q1 vs the prior year. The company has made the clear caveat that first trades were growing through every quarter in FY15, helping the YoY growth rate, but this is encouraging nonetheless.
No change to FY forecasts: History shows that predicting the full year revenue or profit outcome for IG based on any one quarter is folly, but this is clearly a good start. To hit our FY16 revenue forecasts of £432m (Bloomberg consensus £425.5m), the company needs to deliver average quarterly revenue of £108.8m, growth of 3% vs Q1. When compared with the average quarterly revenue from Q2-Q4 FY15 of £100.1m, this would be an average year on year growth rate of 8.8%.
Yield attractions: Given the company has recently announced the retirement of the long standing CEO and the departure of the CFO to Hargreaves Lansdown, it is reassuring that the business has captured revenue as we would expect after a period of market volatility. If investors were concerned that management are leaving due to poor trading, there is nothing in this statement to suggest this is true. IG trades on a May-16 PE of 17.2x, slightly above its LT average rating of c15x and ignores the cash balance of c£100m. Given the re-rating of the wider market, this is a discount to the LT average PE Rel of 1.13x vs the current rating of 1.04x. The May-16 dividend yield of 4.1% continues to look attractive, and we retain our OW rating."

Pre Close Trading Update http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5163085

Interims http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5195494

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group says it performed well during what was a relatively quiet fourth quarter of the year in financial markets, with all key operating and financial metrics remaining strong.

It says that as outlined in the third quarter trading update, this continued robust performance has resulted in higher variable operating costs in the last part of the year, including an increase in online marketing spend, where the payback remains compelling. This cost increase was more than offset by the ongoing strength in trading revenue, meaning the Company now expects full year earnings to be slightly ahead of expectations.

Results for the year ended 31 May will be announced on 19 July.

Liberum Capital today upgrades its investment rating on IG Group Holdings PLC (LON:IGG) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 986p (from 770p).

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group, a global leader in online trading, has completed the purchase of DailyFX, a leading global news and research portal, and its associated assets, from FXCM Inc for a total consideration of $40 million

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group says it continues to perform in line with expectations, after a strong second quarter.

Higher operating costs over the first half of the financial year, due primarily to the ongoing success in effective new client recruitment, have been offset by good revenue delivery

Wow... this looks cheap now at 560p.

Reuters - Britain's financial watchdog proposed tougher rules for retail financial spread betting products known as 'contracts for difference' (CFD) after finding that 82 percent of customers using them lost money.

"We have serious concerns that an increasing number of retail clients are trading in CFD products without an adequate understanding of the risks involved, and as a result can incur rapid, large and unexpected losses," the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Tuesday. bit.ly/2gxTBcg

CFDs, including spread bets and rolling spot foreign exchange products, are agreements between two parties to exchange the difference between the opening price and closing price of a contract.

Shares in UK's IG Group (IGG.L), which holds 40 percent of the UK financial spread betting market by number of active primary accounts, fell 22 percent to 611 pence in early trade.

Shares in retail brokerage CMC Markets (CMCX.L) were down 29.9 percent at 128.17 pence.

Both IG Group and CMC Markets did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters.

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group, a global leader in online trading, has noted an intended measure issued by BaFin, a supervisor of the company's activities in Germany, regarding the marketing, distribution and sale of CFDs to retail clients.

The BaFin announcement proposes that the marketing, distribution and sale of CFDs to retail clients in Germany can only be undertaken if the client is not at risk of losing more than the value of their account.

The company considers the BaFin proposal to be consistent with IG's recent introduction of Limited Risk Accounts, which guarantee that clients cannot incur losses in excess of the amount deposited in their account.

IG firmly believes in robust and proportionate regulatory oversight of the CFD sector in all the markets in which it operates. The company says it has operated and will continue to operate to the highest standards in the industry.

IG will carefully consider the full implications of the BaFin announcement and will be seeking to meet with BaFin before responding to the consultation, in accordance with the timeline provided of 20 January.

Re post #120, I thought that one of the attractions of Spread Betting and CFD's was that investors could trade on margin???