Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE:ICE) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Intercontinental Exchange Inc. has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy", with ten analysts recommending a buy and two suggesting a hold.
• The company's average target price among brokerages is $194.92, indicating potential upside based on current trading prices.
• Intercontinental Exchange recently reported $3.26 billion in revenue for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and marking a 9.8% year-over-year increase.

Shares of Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE:ICE - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $194.9167.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $183.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $180.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $181.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th.

Intercontinental Exchange Price Performance

ICE opened at $178.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $101.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.11. Intercontinental Exchange has a 12-month low of $142.29 and a 12-month high of $189.35.

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.04. Intercontinental Exchange had a return on equity of 13.66% and a net margin of 23.92%. The business had revenue of $3.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Intercontinental Exchange will post 6.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Intercontinental Exchange Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Intercontinental Exchange's payout ratio is 36.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO James W. Namkung sold 612 shares of Intercontinental Exchange stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $110,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 13,220 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,379,600. The trade was a 4.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Andrew J. Surdykowski sold 3,848 shares of Intercontinental Exchange stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.12, for a total value of $689,253.76. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 48,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,683,737.60. The trade was a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 443,488 shares of company stock valued at $80,323,823. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Intercontinental Exchange

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,542,780,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 491.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,433,497 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,109,780,000 after acquiring an additional 5,345,388 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 132.9% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 9,121,352 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,359,173,000 after acquiring an additional 5,204,309 shares in the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 423.8% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 4,546,437 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $677,465,000 after acquiring an additional 3,678,384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange during the 1st quarter worth approximately $575,383,000. Institutional investors own 89.30% of the company's stock.

Intercontinental Exchange Company Profile

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of market infrastructure, data services, and technology solutions for financial institutions, corporations, and government entities in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, India, Abu Dhabi, Israel, and Canada.

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