Buckingham Starts Interactive Brokers At Neutral, Sees It As Best-In-Class Growth Story

Buckingham Research Group's Chris Allen initiated Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ: IBKR) at Neutral, while placing a price objective at $36.96.

"We are fans of growth potential here," Allen said. Due to Interactive's "best-in-class" trading, international connectivity infrastructure and low costs, the analyst views the company as having a "long-term growth story" that "remains intact."

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Downside Risk To Consensus

Although the Buckingham analyst believes Interactive has high growth prospects, he believes that the upside is already factored into consensus estimates. Other concerns include slower growth trends in accounts and margin balances, as both have decreased slightly over the last two years. Account growth is down 15–16 percent compared to 17–18 percent from Q14–4Q15 and margin balance declined year-over-year in three out of the last four quarters.

Due to downside risk, Allen forecast EPS of $0.33 vs consensus of $0.36.