IG Group Holdings Plc (LSE:IGG), the online trading platform operator, has received contrasting levels of optimism from Panmure Liberum and Peel Hunt following its capital markets day, with both brokers backing the shares despite differing views on its growth prospects.
Panmure Liberum reiterated its ‘buy’ rating and 1,500p price target, implying approximately 56% upside from the 964.5p closing price on 22 October, while Peel Hunt maintained its ‘add’ recommendation with a more cautious 1,150p target.
Panmure Liberum analyst Barun Singh said the 22 October strategy presentation had not changed its forecasts but had clarified the potential for growth through customers using multiple products.
In the UK, customers using more than one product generate around 2.9 times the revenue of single-product customers and are 52% more likely to remain active after a year, providing a potential route to higher customer lifetime value.
IG has expanded this approach beyond the UK, where active customers have increased 22% year to date, while more than half of new customers now begin with products other than contracts for difference (CFDs), which allow traders to speculate on price movements without owning the underlying assets.
Panmure Liberum also argued that weak trading returns in the third quarter reflected subdued market volatility rather than a failure of IG’s revised risk-management strategy, which retains more customer trading activity internally instead of hedging it immediately.
The broker expects new pricing and risk-management tools to improve returns from the fourth quarter, while the planned acquisition of Underdog would diversify revenue through daily fantasy sports and prediction markets.
Peel Hunt also highlighted customer growth and cross-selling opportunities but identified trading returns as its main reservation, noting that IG’s return to volume, the proportion of customer income retained after hedging, averaged 75% in 2026 so far.
That compares with the 80% average reported since IG changed its approach in July 2025, although Peel Hunt argued that the higher figure depended heavily on particularly strong returns during 2025.
Peel Hunt also questioned whether cost savings would translate into higher margins, with management planning to reinvest roughly half of savings in marketing and expecting margins to remain below the mid-40s target through 2026 and 2027.
The broker nevertheless maintained its Add rating and 1,150p target, leaving its forecasts unchanged and modelling medium-term revenue growth of 6.6% annually, below management’s guidance for organic growth exceeding 10%.
