Moody's (MCO) Competitors

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

Do insiders and institutionals believe in ICE or MCO?

89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Moody's shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moody's shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange presently has a consensus target price of $188.46, suggesting a potential upside of 5.29%. Moody's has a consensus target price of $519.40, suggesting a potential upside of 7.91%. Given Moody's' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Moody's is more favorable than Intercontinental Exchange.

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
Moody's	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53

Is ICE or MCO more profitable?

Moody's has a net margin of 29.03% compared to Intercontinental Exchange's net margin of 23.42%. Moody's' return on equity of 58.94% beat Intercontinental Exchange's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	23.42%	12.95%	2.57%
Moody's	29.03%	58.94%	14.87%

Does the media prefer ICE or MCO?

In the previous week, Intercontinental Exchange had 3 more articles in the media than Moody's. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Intercontinental Exchange and 23 mentions for Moody's. Moody's' average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Intercontinental Exchange's score of 0.84 indicating that Moody's is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Intercontinental Exchange	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Moody's	15 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation & earnings, ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange has higher revenue and earnings than Moody's. Intercontinental Exchange is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Moody's, 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	8.42	$2.75B	$4.83	37.06
Moody's	$7.23B	11.98	$2.06B	$11.58	41.56

Is ICE or MCO a better dividend stock?

Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Moody's pays an annual dividend of $3.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 39.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moody's pays out 32.5% 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 raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years and Moody's has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange received 294 more outperform votes than Moody's when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.07% of users gave Intercontinental Exchange an outperform vote while only 59.11% of users gave Moody's an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Intercontinental Exchange	Outperform Votes 849 72.07%	Underperform Votes 329 27.93%
Moody's	Outperform Votes 555 59.11%	Underperform Votes 384 40.89%

Which has more risk and volatility, ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody's has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Moody's beats Intercontinental Exchange on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.