Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
83/100
Strong

About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. operates as an automated electronic broker in the United States and internationally. The company engages in the execution, clearance, and settlement of trades in stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange instruments, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), precious metals, and cryptocurrencies. It also offers custody and service accounts for hedge and mutual funds, ETFs, registered investment … Full IBKR analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Premium Fee Margins Fee margin quality is strong (score 1.00).
  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 1.00).

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Fee Revenue Quality

Strong
88

Where IBKR ranks in Capital Markets

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. ranks #1 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score — the top 1%. That makes it the widest moat in the group.

Moat scores for companies ranked near IBKR in Capital Markets
# Company Moat score Rating
1 Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR 83/100 Strong
2 MarketAxess Holdings, Inc. MKTX 81/100 Strong
3 Tradeweb Markets Inc. TW 80/100 Strong
4 Futu Holdings Limited FUTU 80/100 Strong
5 Charles Schwab Corporation (The SCHW 77/100 Strong
6 UP Fintech Holding Limited TIGR 77/100 Strong
7 Virtu Financial, Inc. VIRT 76/100 Strong
8 PJT Partners Inc. PJT 73/100 Moderate
9 Morgan Stanley MS 70/100 Moderate

See every Asset Management & Capital Markets company ranked by moat score →

How IBKR scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 88 · 20% of the moat score

Fee revenue quality is the ability to charge above the industry's falling average and keep charging it.

Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness

Score 78 · 18% of the moat score

Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.

Compensation Discipline

Score 90 · 18% of the moat score

Compensation is the largest expense in asset management and the one that decides whether a good year ever reaches shareholders.

Capital Efficiency

Score 78 · 20% of the moat score

Asset managers are asset-light: with little capital employed, a healthy business should earn a very high return on equity, and a merely average one is a real warning.

Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion

Score 91 · 14% of the moat score

Reported profits here can be flattered by performance fees, seed-capital gains and consolidated fund accounting, none of which recur reliably.

Balance Sheet Strength

Score 67 · 10% of the moat score

Because the business needs so little capital, an asset manager carrying meaningful debt has usually borrowed to buy another manager or to fund distributions.

How each Asset Management Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding IBKR's moat

What is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.'s moat score?

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) scores 83 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #1 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets, the top 1%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 74 companies in Capital Markets. Its strongest defense is Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (91/100) and its weakest is Balance Sheet Strength (67/100).

How does Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. compare with other Capital Markets companies?

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. ranks #1 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score. That is the widest moat in Capital Markets. The companies ranked closest are MarketAxess Holdings, Inc. (MKTX) at 81 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Asset Management Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 74 companies in Capital Markets. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. scored with the Asset Management Specialized template?

An asset manager owns almost nothing. It charges a fee on someone else's money, pays much of that fee out in compensation, and keeps the remainder — so its economics turn on the fee rate it can defend, whether client money stays, and how much revenue survives the bonus pool. The Asset Management template scores those questions rather than the balance sheet, which in this industry is largely beside the point.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and IBKR scores: Fee Revenue Quality (88), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (78), Compensation Discipline (90), Capital Efficiency (78), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (91), Balance Sheet Strength (67). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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