Intercontinental Exchange NYSE: ICE reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $2.02, up 18% from a year earlier, as revenue growth across its exchanges, fixed-income data businesses and mortgage technology operations helped produce what management called the company’s best third quarter on record.
Net revenue rose 15% year over year to $2.8 billion, while adjusted operating income increased 19% to $1.7 billion. Recurring revenue reached a record $1.4 billion, up 7%, and transaction revenue increased 23%.
“Each environment was different, and in each one, we grew,” Chief Financial Officer Warren Gardiner said, referring to changing market conditions during the first nine months of the year. Through nine months, adjusted EPS rose 20% to $6.27.
Expense, Cash Flow and MarketAxess Update
Third-quarter adjusted operating expenses totaled $1.068 billion, at the midpoint of ICE’s guidance. Gardiner said the year-over-year increase reflected performance-related incentive compensation, technology and product investments, data-center and network capacity spending, and higher depreciation.
For the fourth quarter, ICE expects adjusted operating expenses of $1.082 billion to $1.092 billion. The company expects adjusted non-operating expense of $175 million to $185 million and an adjusted tax rate toward the high end of its 24% to 26% range.
Capital expenditures were $226 million during the quarter and $664 million through nine months. ICE now expects approximately $1.05 billion in full-year capital expenditures, reflecting an expected fourth-quarter purchase of a new Atlanta campus, as well as additional data-center and real-estate spending.
Adjusted free cash flow was $1.1 billion in the quarter and a record $3.7 billion year to date, up 17%. The company repurchased $400 million of stock and paid $293 million in dividends during the quarter, bringing year-to-date shareholder returns to $2.5 billion.
ICE also said it has completed financing for its pending acquisition of MarketAxess, including the issuance of $3.75 billion of senior notes and a $2 billion term loan. Following Department of Justice approval, the company expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2027, earlier than the first-half timeline previously outlined.
Exchange Revenue Climbs on Energy and Rates Activity
Exchanges net revenue increased 22% to a third-quarter record of $1.5 billion. Transaction revenue rose 28%, led by a 48% increase in interest-rate revenue, a 26% gain in energy and a 62% increase in agricultural and metals revenue.
NYSE cash equities and equity-options net revenue rose 25% to $132 million. Exchange recurring revenue reached a record $422 million, up 8%, including $292 million in Exchange Data Services revenue, which increased 10%.
The NYSE facilitated $26.5 billion in initial public offering proceeds across 73 IPOs year to date, surpassing its full-year 2025 total, Gardiner said. Nine companies representing nearly $500 billion in market capitalization transferred to the NYSE during the year, while its listing retention rate remained above 99%.
ICE raised its full-year forecast for exchange recurring-revenue growth to approximately 9%, at the upper end of its previous high-single-digit outlook. The company expects fourth-quarter OTC and other revenue of about $100 million, partly reflecting lower regulatory fees.
President Ben Jackson said futures and options average daily volume rose 31% during the quarter, a third-quarter record, while total open interest ended the period up 13% year over year. Energy open interest ended the quarter at 66 million lots, with options representing 40% of energy open interest.
Jackson highlighted strong activity in European gas, liquefied natural gas and oil markets. TTF volume increased 39% year over year and TTF options volume rose 72%, while JKM volume climbed 45% and Brent volume increased 38%. Interest-rate volume rose 49%, including a 40% increase in EURIBOR and a 63% increase in SONIA activity.
Fixed Income Data and Mortgage Technology
Fixed Income and Data Services revenue rose 9% to a record $674 million, while recurring revenue also increased 9% to a record $538 million. Fixed Income Data and Analytics revenue grew 8% to $336 million, supported by pricing and reference-data consumption, subscription sales and index growth.
Data network technology revenue rose 10% to $202 million, led by demand for low-latency connectivity and co-location services. CDS clearing revenue increased 13% to $102 million, which management described as a record third quarter for that business.
ICE increased its full-year FIDS recurring-revenue growth outlook to approximately 8%, at the top of its prior range. Chris Edmonds, president of Fixed Income and Data Services, said customers are increasingly seeking a smaller number of vendors able to provide greater scale across data offerings.
ETF assets benchmarked to ICE indices reached a record $935 billion, up 24%, Jackson said. The company also launched ICE IDs for private credit in July with Apollo as an anchor partner and added a reference-data service in September.
Mortgage Technology revenue increased 4% to $549 million, with servicing and data-and-analytics revenue each up 6%. Recurring revenue rose 4% to $405 million. Transaction revenue also increased 4%, though Gardiner said mortgage-market conditions weakened late in the quarter.
ICE expects mortgage recurring revenue to grow modestly from the third quarter, but expects transaction revenue to decline both sequentially and year over year in the fourth quarter because of typical seasonality and elevated mortgage rates. The company expects to exit 2026 with approximately $270 million in annualized expense synergies from the Black Knight acquisition, exceeding its original five-year target of $200 million.
Blockchain, Perpetual Futures and New Products
Chair and CEO Jeff Sprecher discussed ICE’s planned relationship with Trade[XYZ], under which ICE would become the exclusive operator of Trade[XYZ]’s regulated markets while making a strategic investment in the company. The initiative remains subject to regulatory approvals.
Sprecher said ICE views real-world asset perpetual futures as complementary to its institutional futures markets because perpetual contracts are designed for short-term exposure rather than forward pricing across future settlement dates. ICE intends to operate the retail-oriented blockchain business separately from its institutional futures and clearing franchise.
The company also continues to develop a joint venture with OKX, pending regulatory approval, that would provide regulated access for OKX’s retail customer base to securities and commodities listed on ICE and NYSE platforms. Sprecher said the planned framework would use wallet technology with Know Your Customer and anti-money-laundering capabilities.
Separately, ICE said it is pursuing compute-related products through partnerships involving the Ornn Index and NATIVX COIL Index. Jackson said the company is already providing indicative settlements and reference data for an initial set of compute products while awaiting Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval.
About Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE)
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc NYSE: ICE is a global operator of exchanges, clearinghouses, data services and technology platforms. The company owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange and other exchanges serving equity, options, futures and over-the-counter markets. Its marketplaces support trading in areas including energy, agricultural commodities, interest rates, currencies, equity indexes and individual stocks.
ICE also provides clearing and settlement services that help manage counterparty and transaction risk, along with market data, analytics, connectivity and other technology solutions for financial institutions and businesses.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider Intercontinental Exchange, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Intercontinental Exchange wasn't on the list.
While Intercontinental Exchange currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
The AI boom is creating opportunities across semiconductors, cloud computing, enterprise software, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and automation.
Inside this report, you’ll find 10 companies positioned to benefit as artificial intelligence moves from hype to real-world deployment and becomes a core growth driver for corporate America.
Get This Free Report
Continue following MarketBeat
Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.
