Moody's (MCO) Competitors

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

Is ICE or MCO more profitable?

Moody's has a net margin of 28.34% compared to Moody's' net margin of 24.24%. Intercontinental Exchange's return on equity of 57.03% beat Moody's' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	24.24%	12.76%	2.39%
Moody's	28.34%	57.03%	14.06%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange received 292 more outperform votes than Moody's when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.57% of users gave Intercontinental Exchange an outperform vote while only 59.46% of users gave Moody's an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Intercontinental Exchange	Outperform Votes 823 72.57%	Underperform Votes 311 27.43%
Moody's	Outperform Votes 531 59.46%	Underperform Votes 362 40.54%

Do analysts rate ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange presently has a consensus target price of $152.07, indicating a potential upside of 0.71%. Moody's has a consensus target price of $448.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.11%. Given Moody's' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than Moody's.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intercontinental Exchange	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Moody's	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Which has better earnings and valuation, 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	$9.90B	8.75	$2.37B	$4.36	34.63
Moody's	$5.92B	13.86	$1.61B	$9.16	49.02

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ICE or MCO?

89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Moody's shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moody's shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody's has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor ICE or MCO?

In the previous week, Moody's had 29 more articles in the media than Intercontinental Exchange. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for Moody's and 23 mentions for Intercontinental Exchange. Intercontinental Exchange's average media sentiment score of 0.56 beat Moody's' score of 0.29 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	9 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Moody's	11 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	19 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is ICE or MCO a better dividend stock?

Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Moody's pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 41.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moody's pays out 37.1% 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. Moody's has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Summary

Moody's beats Intercontinental Exchange on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.