Interactive Brokers Group Announces 4Q2024 Results

GAAP Diluted EPS of $1.99, Adjusted¹ EPS of $2.03

GAAP Net Revenues of $1,387 Million, Adjusted Net Revenues of $1,424 Million

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR), an automated global electronic broker, announced results for the quarter ended December 31, 2024.

Reported diluted earnings per share were $1.99 for the current quarter and $2.03 as adjusted. For the year-ago quarter, reported diluted earnings per share were $1.48 and $1.52 as adjusted.

Reported net revenues were $1,387 million for the current quarter and $1,424 million as adjusted. For the year-ago quarter, reported net revenues were $1,139 million and $1,149 million as adjusted.

Reported income before income taxes was $1,040 million for the current quarter and $1,077 million as adjusted. For the year-ago quarter, reported income before income taxes was $816 million and $831 million as adjusted.

Financial Highlights

(All comparisons are to the year-ago quarter.)

• Commission revenue increased 37% to $477 million on higher customer trading volumes. Customer trading volume in options and stocks increased 32% and 65%, respectively, while customer futures volume decreased by 3%.

• Net interest income increased 11% to $807 million on higher average customer margin loans and customer credit balances.

• Other fees and services increased $26 million, or 47%, to $81 million, led by increases of $14 million in risk exposure fees and $4 million in payments for order flow from exchange-mandated programs.

• Execution, clearing and distribution fees expenses increased 15% to $115 million, driven by a higher SEC fee rate, a new FINRA Consolidated Audit Trail ("CAT") fee initiated during the current quarter, and higher customer trading volumes in options and stocks.

• General and administrative expenses increased $14 million, or 31%, to $59 million, driven primarily by an increase of $9 million in advertising expenses.

• Pretax profit margin for the current quarter was 75% as reported and 76% as adjusted. For the year-ago quarter, pretax margin was 72% both as reported and as adjusted.

• Total equity of $16.6 billion.

The Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share. This dividend is payable on March 14, 2025, to shareholders of record as of February 28, 2025.

Business Highlights

(All comparisons are to the year-ago quarter.)

• Customer accounts increased 30% to 3.34 million.
• Customer equity increased 33% to $568.2 billion.
• Total DARTs² increased 61% to 3.12 million.
• Customer credits increased 15% to $119.7 billion.
• Customer margin loans increased 45% to $64.2 billion.

Other Items

In connection with our currency diversification strategy, we base our net worth in GLOBALs, a basket of 10 major currencies in which we hold our equity. In this quarter, our currency diversification strategy decreased our comprehensive earnings by $266 million, as the U.S. dollar value of the GLOBAL decreased by approximately 1.63%. The effects of the currency diversification strategy are reported as components of (1) Other Income (loss of $18 million) and (2) Other Comprehensive Income (loss of $248 million).

This quarter, Other Income also includes a $24 million net gain from our investment in Tiger Brokers, which is comprised of a one-time realized gain of $34 million from the sale of a portion of such investment and a $10 million unrealized loss.

Conference Call Information:

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. will hold a conference call with investors today, January 21, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss its quarterly results. Members of the public who would like to listen to the conference call should register at https://register.vevent.com/register/BI6ae762cae1c640e587dcb275064fe06c to obtain the dial-in details. The number should be dialed approximately ten minutes prior to the start of the conference call. The conference call will also be accessible simultaneously, and through replays, as an audio webcast through the Investor Relations section of the Interactive Brokers web site, www.interactivebrokers.com/ir.

About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.:

Interactive Brokers Group affiliates provide automated trade execution and custody of securities, commodities, foreign exchange, and forecast contracts around the clock on over 150 markets in numerous countries and currencies from a single unified platform to clients worldwide. We serve individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial advisors and introducing brokers. Our four decades of focus on technology and automation have enabled us to equip our clients with a uniquely sophisticated platform to manage their investment portfolios. We strive to provide our clients with advantageous execution prices and trading, risk and portfolio management tools, research facilities and investment products, all at low or no cost, positioning them to achieve superior returns on investments. Interactive Brokers has consistently earned recognition as a top broker, garnering multiple awards and accolades from respected industry sources such as Barron's, Investopedia, Stockbrokers.com, and many others.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

The foregoing information contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current views with respect to certain current and future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are and will be, as the case may be, subject to many risks, uncertainties and factors relating to the Company's operations and business environment which may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from any future results, expressed or implied, in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to the Company on the date of this release. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that any statements expressed or implied therein will not be realized. Additional information on risk factors that could potentially affect the Company's financial results may be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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1</sup> See the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures starting on page 9.

² Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) are based on customer orders.

Note: The term "GAAP" in the following explanation refers to generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.

¹ Adjusted net revenues, adjusted income before income taxes, adjusted net income available for common stockholders and adjusted diluted earnings per share ("EPS") are non-GAAP financial measures.

• We define adjusted net revenues as net revenues adjusted to remove the effect of our currency diversification strategy, our net mark-to-market gains (losses) on investments², and the remeasurement of our Tax Receivable Agreement ("TRA") liability³.
• We define adjusted income before income taxes as income before income taxes adjusted to remove the effect of our currency diversification strategy, our net mark-to-market gains (losses) on investments, the remeasurement of our TRA liability, and unusual bad debt expense⁴.
• We define adjusted net income available to common stockholders as net income available for common stockholders adjusted to remove the after-tax effects attributable to IBG, Inc. of our currency diversification strategy, our net mark-to-market gains (losses) on investments, the remeasurement of our TRA liability, unusual bad debt expense, and the remeasurement of certain deferred tax assets⁶.
• We define adjusted diluted EPS as adjusted net income available for common stockholders divided by the diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period.

Management believes these non-GAAP items are important measures of our financial performance because they exclude certain items that may not be indicative of our core operating results and business outlook and may be useful to investors and analysts in evaluating the operating performance of the business and facilitating a meaningful comparison of our results in the current period to those in prior and future periods. Our currency diversification strategy, our mark-to-market on investments, the remeasurement of our TRA liability, unusual bad debt expense, and the remeasurement of certain deferred tax assets are excluded because management does not believe they are indicative of our underlying core business performance. Adjusted net revenues, adjusted income before income taxes, adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted diluted EPS should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, GAAP net revenues, income before income taxes, net income attributable to common stockholders and diluted EPS.

² Mark-to-market on investments represents the net mark-to-market gains (losses) on investments in equity securities that do not qualify for equity method accounting, which are measured at fair value; on our U.S. government and municipal securities portfolios, which are typically held to maturity; and on certain other investments, including equity securities taken over by the Company as a customer accommodation due to a technical issue at the New York Stock Exchange that occurred on the morning of June 3, 2024.

³ Remeasurement of our TRA liability represents the change in the amount payable to IBG Holdings LLC under the TRA, primarily due to changes in the Company's effective tax rates. This is related to the remeasurement of the deferred tax assets described below. For further information refer to Note 4 – Equity and Earnings per Share under Part II, Item 8 – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 27, 2024.

⁴ Unusual bad debt expense consists of a credit loss on a loan not related to margin lending.

⁵ The income tax effect is estimated using the statutory income tax rates applicable to the Company.

⁶ Remeasurement of certain deferred tax assets represents the change in the unamortized balance of deferred tax assets related to the step-up in basis arising from the acquisition of interests in IBG LLC, primarily due to changes in the Company's effective tax rates. For further information refer to Note 4 – Equity and Earnings per Share under Part II, Item 8 – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 27, 2024.

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For Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Investors: Nancy Stuebe, [email protected] or Media: Rob Garfield, [email protected].