On Monday, Interactive Brokers Group Inc.’s (IBKR) business segment Electronic Brokerage announced its monthly performance data for the month of April. The segment clears and settles trades globally for both individual and institutional clients.

Interactive reported 170,700 Customer Accounts for the month of April 2011. This marked a 1.7% increase from 167,900 in March 2011 and 19.9% from 142,400 in April 2010. However, the total customer Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) was 404,000 for the reported month, down 5.2% from the prior month but up 6.0% from the prior-year month.

On an annualized basis, Interactive reported Cleared Average DART per Customer Account of 551,000 in April 2011, down from 592,000 in March 2011 and 614,000 in April 2010.

Showing a decline of 18.8% from 26,614 in March 2011 and a fall of 5.2% from 22,799 in April 2010, Interactive’s total options contracts stood at 21,605 for April 2011. Also, the company’s futures contracts declined 30.4% from the prior month and 9.2% from the year-ago month to 5,785 in April 2011.

Interactive also provided period-end statistics for customer equity, customer credit balances, and customer margin loan balances. For the period ended April 2011, customer equity stood at $26.1 billion, up 5.2% from March 2011 end and 53.5% from April 2010 end.

Likewise, customer credit balances for April 2011 end came in at $18.4 billion, up from $16.7 billion at March 2011 end and $11.7 billion at April 2010 end.

Furthermore, Interactive’s Electronic Brokerage segment reported customer margin loan balances of $10.5 billion for the month ended April 2011, reflecting a 14.1% increase from $9.2 billion at March 2011 end and 123.4% from $4.7 billion at April 2010 end.

Though Interactive’s fundamentals remain strong with a liquid balance sheet, sturdy capital base and high barriers to entry, we believe that the company’s dependence on IBG LLC as well as increased market risk due to significant international exposure remain causes of concern in the near-to-medium term.

Interactive Brokers currently retains a Zacks #1 Rank, which translates into a short-term Strong Buy rating. However, one of its peers Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF) retains a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Buy rating.

 
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