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IBKR, Interactive Brokers Group Inc.
Interactive Brokers Group Inc. is an automated global broker.
We custody and service accounts for hedge and mutual funds, exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), registered investment advisors, proprietary trading groups, introducing brokers and individual investors.
We specialize in routing orders and executing and processing trades in stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange instruments ("forex"), bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, precious metals, and forecast contracts on more than 170 electronic exchanges and market centers in 40 countries and 29 currencies around the world.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~37 days after · the wire records it on arrival
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Assets under management and the fee rate on them. What decides it: net flows in or out, the market's move on the assets already there (the firm rises and falls with the indices it invests in), the drift toward cheaper passive products, and the operating leverage on a largely fixed cost base. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Operating margin has run at the high end of fee-business margins across the record (median 41%, above 25% in 7 of 10 years), the economics of a business that takes a cut without carrying the risk. It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 13%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the assets stay (net flows, not last year's market) is what the flow disclosures and the 10-K settle, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMJun 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $1.5B | $1.9B | $1.9B | $1.9B | $2.2B | $2.7B | $3.1B | $4.3B | $5.2B | $6.2B | $6.9B | RevenueRevenue |
| 9.9% | 17.2% | 36.9% | 45.0% | 24.0% | 25.2% | 50.7% | 98.9% | 100.9% | 90.5% | 88.1% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 5.7% | 3.9% | 8.9% | 8.3% | 8.8% | 11.3% | 12.4% | 13.8% | 14.6% | 15.9% | 16.4% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $761M | $1.0B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.3B | $1.8B | $2.0B | $3.1B | $3.7B | $4.8B | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| $84M | $76M | $169M | $161M | $195M | $308M | $380M | $600M | $755M | $984M | $1.1B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 8% | 24% | 6% | 6% | 6% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 9% | 29% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| ($6M) | ($26M) | ($57M) | ($89M) | ($50M) | ($188M) | ($67M) | ($52M) | ($44M) | ($171M) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| ($189M) | ($374M) | ($399M) | ($419M) | ($229M) | ($523M) | ($470M) | ($624M) | ($833M) | ($969M) | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($25M) | $65M | ($79M) | $24M | $124M | ($97M) | ($111M) | $122M | ($207M) | $391M | — | Exchange-rate effectFX |
| $415M | $730M | $1.8B | $2.2B | $7.9B | $5.1B | $3.3B | $4.0B | $7.6B | $15.1B | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| 9% | 7% | 13% | 11% | 10% | 13% | 13% | 17% | 18% | 18% | 19% | Return on equityROE |
| 6% | 4% | 11% | 9% | 8% | 11% | 12% | 16% | 15% | 16% | 17% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $54.7B | $61.2B | $60.5B | $71.7B | $95.7B | $109.1B | $115.1B | $128.3B | $150.1B | $203.2B | $247.3B | Total assetsAssets |
| $1.9B | $1.7B | $2.6B | $2.9B | $4.3B | $2.4B | $3.4B | $3.8B | $3.6B | $5.0B | $7.7B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $48.9B | $54.7B | $53.4B | $63.7B | $86.7B | $98.9B | $103.5B | $114.2B | $133.5B | $182.8B | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $4.8B | $5.3B | $5.9B | $6.5B | $7.1B | $7.8B | $8.8B | $10.5B | $12.3B | $15.1B | — | Noncontrolling interestsNCI |
| $974M | $1.1B | $1.3B | $1.5B | $2.0B | $2.4B | $2.8B | $3.6B | $4.3B | $5.4B | $5.9B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 269M | 284M | 297M | 307M | 323M | 380M | 405M | 423M | 436M | 444M | 449M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $5.48 | $6.79 | $6.41 | $6.30 | $6.88 | $7.14 | $7.57 | $10.25 | $11.89 | $13.98 | $15.28 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.31 | $0.27 | $0.57 | $0.52 | $0.60 | $0.81 | $0.94 | $1.42 | $1.73 | $2.22 | $2.51 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.21 | $0.30 | $0.33 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $3.62 | $3.84 | $4.32 | $4.72 | $6.05 | $6.30 | $7.03 | $8.47 | $9.82 | $12.08 | $13.14 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Share counts before 2023 are restated ×4 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +11.0%/yr | +15.2%/yr |
| EPS | +24.3%/yr | +29.7%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +13.5%/yr | +24.9%/yr |
| Book value / share | +14.3%/yr | +14.8%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Net interest income+13.2%
“Net interest income (interest income less interest expense), for the current year, increased $415 million, or 13%, compared to the prior year, to $3,563 million. The increase in net interest income was driven by higher average customer margin loans and customer credit balances, and stronger securities lending activity, partially offset by lower benchmark interest rates.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Operating margin 90.5%Wide fee margin (≥30%)Operating income $5.6B ÷ revenue $6.2BIndustry peers: median 10%
What this means
The heart of a asset manager: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Fees ride on assets under management, so the swing factors are net flows in or out and the market's move on the assets already there; the cost base is largely fixed, which lifts margins in a bull market and squeezes them in a bear one. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 15.9%WideNet income $984M ÷ revenue $6.2B
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 18%StrongNet income $984M ÷ equity $5.4BIndustry peers: median 7%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Net income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mr. Milan Galik | $12.3M | $19.5M | $308M |
| 2022 | Mr. Milan Galik | $14.0M | $8.6M | $380M |
| 2023 | Mr. Milan Galik | $15.4M | $19.8M | $600M |
| 2024 | Mr. Milan Galik | $17.3M | $53.3M | $755M |
| 2025 | Mr. Milan Galik | $19.7M | $42.2M | $984M |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Net income is the whole business's, as filed, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership2.8%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio177:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$118M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 1.9% of revenue, equal to 2.1% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
Peers, Capital Markets & Asset Management
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Op. marginmedian over the record | Net marginmedian over the record | ROEmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETOReToro Group Ltd. Class A | $13.8B | 2.1% | 1.5% | 1% |
| JEFJefferies Financial Group | $10.8B | 32.6% | 6.1% | 6% |
| IBKRInteractive Brokers Group Inc. | $6.2B | 41.0% | 10.1% | 13% |
| HOODRobinhood Markets Inc. | $4.5B | -28.6% | -29.0% | -8% |
| VIRTVirtu Financial | $3.6B | 14.2% | 10.4% | 22% |
| SEICSEI Investments Company | $2.3B | 26.6% | 27.0% | 27% |
| PIPRPiper Sandler | $1.9B | 10.0% | 7.6% | 9% |
| OPYOppenheimer Holdings Inc. | $1.6B | 7.3% | 4.0% | 7% |
| Group median | — | 12.1% | 6.9% | 8% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFInteractive Brokers Group Inc. is profitable, but its owner-earnings base could not be formed from this filing’s tagged data (operating cash flow or capital spending is missing), so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.
Revenue, delivered24%/yr’20→’25
Enter a price to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.
Manual order: ← IBEX its page in the Manual IBM →
Industry order: ← HUT the Capital Markets & Asset Management chapter ICE →