IG Group Upgrades Full-Year Guidance After Strong Q1 and Accelerating Momentum

IG Group has come out with a notably strong AGM trading update, and the headline is simple enough: trading was better than expected, customer growth kept improving, and management has now raised full-year guidance.

That matters because upgrades are what investors usually want to see. It is one thing to report a good quarter helped by lively markets. It is much more important when the board says enough of that strength looks durable to justify lifting both 2026 expectations and the medium-term outlook.

IG Group Q1 2026 trading update shows strong revenue growth and higher full-year guidance

For the three months to 31 March 2026, IG reported organic total revenue of £331.2 million, up 19% year-on-year. Reported total revenue was £339.9 million, up 21%.

The distinction between organic and reported matters here. Organic strips out the impact of acquisitions and discontinued operations, so it gives a cleaner read on the underlying business. On that basis, this was a very solid quarter.

Key Q1 2026 numbers	Figure	Change
Organic total revenue	£331.2 million	Up 19% year-on-year
Reported total revenue	£339.9 million	Up 21% year-on-year
Organic net trading revenue	£306.5 million	Up 25% year-on-year
Organic net interest income	£24.7 million	Down 22% year-on-year
Organic active customers	309.2k	Up 12% year-on-year
Organic first trades	45.1k	Up 63% year-on-year
Total AuA	£19.3 billion	Up 57% reported, 20% organic

IG Group revenue mix: OTC derivatives, stock trading and crypto did the heavy lifting

The biggest engine room was still OTC derivatives, which are over-the-counter leveraged products such as CFDs and spread bets. Revenue from OTC derivatives reached £250.6 million, up 26% year-on-year and 22% quarter-on-quarter.

That tells you two things. First, market volatility in commodities clearly helped trading activity. Second, IG says its own pricing, product investment and marketing are also contributing, which is more encouraging than a one-off market spike on its own.

Exchange traded derivatives revenue came in at £40.7 million, up 7% year-on-year, helped by tastytrade. That is perfectly respectable, though it was down 3% quarter-on-quarter, which management says was broadly consistent with US retail options volumes.

The standout growth line was stock trading and investments. Revenue rose to £19.6 million, up 79% year-on-year. On an organic basis it was £15.0 million, up 38%, which points to genuine momentum in IG’s zero-commission offering.

Crypto is still small, but it is moving in the right direction. Spot crypto revenue was £2.4 million, versus £0.1 million a year earlier. That growth was helped by a broader product range and the acquisition of Independent Reserve, which contributed £2.1 million of revenue in its first two months of consolidation, despite softer conditions across the crypto sector.

IG Group customer growth is accelerating, and that is arguably the most important number in the update

If you want the most encouraging part of this statement, it is probably the customer data. Organic first trades jumped 63% year-on-year to 45.1k, while organic active customers rose 12% to 309.2k.

Better still, management says active customer growth has already accelerated beyond 12% in Q2 2026 quarter-to-date. That suggests Q1 was not just a lucky burst.

IG also said marketing payback remained at under six months. In plain English, that means the company is winning customers fast without blowing up its economics. For a platform business, that is exactly what you want to see.

Reported customer numbers are much larger because of acquisitions. Monthly active customers were 834.8k, up 202%, and funded customers were 1,380.4k, up 143%. Those are eye-catching, but the organic figures are the better guide to underlying progress.

Assets under administration passed £20 billion as IG pushes harder into investing and ISA season

Assets under administration, or AuA, are the assets held on platforms for customers. This is a useful health check for the investing side of the group.

Total AuA across IG’s platforms reached £19.3 billion at 31 March 2026, up 57% on a reported basis and 20% organically. By 30 April, that had already increased to £20.7 billion.

IG’s organic platforms had £8.5 billion of AuA at quarter end, rising to £9.3 billion by 30 April. UK AuA reached £3.7 billion and then exceeded £4.1 billion a month later, helped by a strong ISA season and customer transfers.

Freetrade is part of that story, although its quarter was a little mixed. AuA rose to £3.6 billion, up 54% year-on-year, and crossed £4.0 billion in April. But total revenue of £6.5 million fell quarter-on-quarter because customers shifted into UK assets, funds and cash, which reduced FX fee income. That is not ideal, but it looks more like a revenue mix issue than a customer engagement problem.

Why IG Group upgraded 2026 guidance and why investors should pay attention

The board now expects organic total revenue growth of 10-15% in 2026 on the 2025 base of approximately £1,100 million. Previously, guidance had been for growth in the high single digits.

That is a meaningful upgrade. The company is not just tweaking around the edges either – it also now expects EBITDA margins in the mid-40s percent range to be sustained. EBITDA is a profit measure before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and margin tells you how much of revenue turns into that profit measure.

Net interest income is now expected at £110-120 million, versus approximately £110 million previously. That is modestly better, although Q1 still showed a 22% fall in organic net interest income because of lower rates and greater pass-through to customers.

More importantly, management also upgraded its medium-term outlook. It now believes the group can deliver at least 10% organic total revenue compound growth per annum beyond 2026 on the 2025 base, while sustaining EBITDA margins in the mid-40s percent range. That is a confident statement.

Strategic review and share buyback add another layer to the IG Group investment case

There is more going on here than just trading momentum. IG is also running a strategic review to look at ways to maximise shareholder value, including acquisitions, its domicile and listing venues, and potential combinations of parts of the group with other industry participants.

That does not guarantee a dramatic corporate move, and management has not disclosed any outcome yet. But it does tell the market that the board thinks there may be untapped value in the current structure.

On top of that, the company is returning cash via a £125 million share buyback. By 15 May 2026, it had repurchased 987,160 shares at a cost of £14.9 million. Buybacks do not transform a business on their own, but they can support earnings per share and signal confidence.

My take on the IG Group AGM update: clearly positive, with one or two caveats

This is a good update. The revenue growth is strong, customer acquisition is accelerating, the investing platform is gaining traction, crypto is broadening, and management has put its name to higher guidance.

The main negative is that some of the quarter was helped by favourable trading conditions, which can fade. Net interest income is also still under pressure compared with last year, even if the full-year outlook has improved slightly.

Even so, the overall read-across is positive. The key point for retail investors is that IG looks less reliant on one product and more like a broader trading and investing platform. If it can keep adding customers this efficiently and cross-sell them across products, today’s upgrade may not be the last one.

The next scheduled update is the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026, due on 31 July 2026. After this statement, that date has become more interesting.