UBS upgrades IG Group to 'buy', hikes price target

(Sharecast News) - UBS upgraded IG Group on Tuesday to 'buy' from 'neutral' and hiked the price target to 1,600p from 1,250p. The bank said IG should benefit from market volatility and trading activity, but is also self-helping with revenue retention initiatives and new products.

"It is seeing positive momentum in active customers and funded accounts, and we expect this to continue, which should help drive share price re-rating," UBS said. "At our price target, IG Group would trade at 11.9x 2027E PE."

The bank is forecasting 12% per annum earnings per share growth from CY25E to 30E, reflecting strong 7% per year trading revenue growth.

"Since 2024, a key focus has been on launching new products at pace (e.g. crypto trading, free stockbroking), and enhancing revenue retention (fee and commissions to trading revenue)," UBS noted. "This is underpinned by active customer growth since Q4 24, with year-over-year growth in Funded Customers rising from 6% Q1 25 to 10% Q3 25."

The bank also said it sees IG's AI adoption so far as well aligned with its strategic focus on adding clients and reducing cost to serve.

"It uses an AI-driven customer support chatbot, has implemented Adclear for AI financial promotions review, and Alloy's AI-driven KYC/ AML system to automate onboarding and fraud checks," UBS pointed out.

At 1105 GMT, the shares were up 0.6% at 1,343p.