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?

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???

Barclays Capital today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on IG Group Holdings PLC (LON:IGG) and cut its price target to 612p (from 950p).

Without having to scroll back to find out, what was the reason for the dramatic drop in December please?

All briefly explained in post #119.

Thanks Harry.

A rather encouraging set of Interims this morning from IGG I think, also a major share purchase so I have dipped my toe in.

What do you think?

StockMarketWire.com
IG Group Holdings - a global leader in online trading - posts pre-tax profits of £105.2m for the six months to the end of November, 6.7% up on last time.

Net trading revenue rose by 14% to a record £244.9m while operating expenses were up 23%, with significant investment in effective marketing.

Profit after tax was £83.3 million, 9% ahead of the prior year (2016: £76.7 million), as the group's effective tax rate fell to 20.8% (2016: 22.2%).

Chief executive Peter Hetherington said: "This has been another good six months for the business, with record revenue, a new high in active client numbers and ongoing success in attracting and developing the next generation of traders.

"I am extremely proud of what we have achieved.

"The business once again proved the resilience of its operating model and its people, as it dealt exceptionally well with the short term volatility in the financial markets caused by two significant political events.

"IG is evolving and refining its offering to clients.

"Strategically, for some time, we have been shifting our emphasis to active financial trading and investing, deepening and broadening the relationship with our clients.

"In January, we received our licence from the FCA to offer an investments service to clients in the UK, in partnership with BlackRock, and intend to launch our smart portfolio ETF product in the UK in the near future.

"Also, as part of this evolution, we now offer clients our Limited Risk account, with an absolute guarantee that they can lose no more than their deposit - around half of the accounts in the UK are being opened on this basis.

"We have also taken the decision to no longer offer our Sprints binary product to new clients globally.

"We welcome the intentions of the FCA and other European regulators to improve consumer outcomes across the industry, and we believe that IG's Limited Risk account will play an important role in this.

"In delivering a sustainable business for over 40 years, IG has always sought, and will always seek, to operate to the highest regulatory standards.

"As the largest provider in the industry, IG is engaging with the consultation processes."

Seems pretty good Stan. I don't have any spare cash at the mo, so shan't be joining you. Still the regulatory cloud hanging over the industry, so could go either way, but could take forever for them to decide what to do.