CME Group (CME) Competitors

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) and CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, community ranking, dividends and institutional ownership.

Do analysts recommend ICE or CME?

Intercontinental Exchange presently has a consensus target price of $188.46, indicating a potential upside of 6.62%. CME Group has a consensus target price of $256.80, indicating a potential downside of 8.71%. Given Intercontinental Exchange's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than CME Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intercontinental Exchange	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.85
CME Group	3 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ICE or CME?

Intercontinental Exchange received 177 more outperform votes than CME Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.07% of users gave Intercontinental Exchange an outperform vote while only 58.59% of users gave CME Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Intercontinental Exchange	Outperform Votes 849 72.07%	Underperform Votes 329 27.93%
CME Group	Outperform Votes 672 58.59%	Underperform Votes 475 41.41%

Is ICE or CME a better dividend stock?

Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. CME Group pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 39.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CME Group pays out 50.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Intercontinental Exchange has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years.

Which has more risk and volatility, ICE or CME?

Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CME Group has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ICE or CME more profitable?

CME Group has a net margin of 57.52% compared to Intercontinental Exchange's net margin of 23.42%. CME Group's return on equity of 13.62% beat Intercontinental Exchange's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	23.42%	12.95%	2.57%
CME Group	57.52%	13.62%	2.81%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in ICE or CME?

89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of CME Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of CME Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor ICE or CME?

In the previous week, CME Group had 13 more articles in the media than Intercontinental Exchange. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for CME Group and 39 mentions for Intercontinental Exchange. Intercontinental Exchange's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat CME Group's score of 1.06 indicating that Intercontinental Exchange is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Intercontinental Exchange	35 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CME Group	34 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation & earnings, ICE or CME?

CME Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Intercontinental Exchange. CME Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Intercontinental Exchange, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Intercontinental Exchange	$12.19B	8.32	$2.75B	$4.83	36.60
CME Group	$6.28B	16.13	$3.53B	$9.94	28.30

Summary

Intercontinental Exchange beats CME Group on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.