Candriam S.C.A. Reduces Holdings in Intercontinental Exchange Inc. $ICE

Candriam S.C.A. lowered its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE:ICE) by 12.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 445,470 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 62,394 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A. owned about 0.08% of Intercontinental Exchange worth $70,064,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 17,398.1% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 54,107,273 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,763,214,000 after purchasing an additional 53,798,055 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Intercontinental Exchange in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,418,228,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $777,926,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 64.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,354,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,744,480,000 after acquiring an additional 4,067,922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 148.6% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,203,845 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $519,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914,851 shares during the last quarter. 89.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Intercontinental Exchange

Here are the key news stories impacting Intercontinental Exchange this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Barclays reiterated an Overweight view and raised its price target to $180, while UBS and Goldman Sachs recently also issued bullish targets, signaling Wall Street still sees upside in ICE’s core exchange and data businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: Social-media and market commentary continue to highlight ICE’s strong earnings growth, relatively low valuation versus peers, and expansion initiatives in futures and tokenized equities, which support the long-term bull case.
• Neutral Sentiment: ICE’s coffee futures market is in the spotlight after the company raised margin requirements for coffee trading, contributing to sharp swings in arabica and robusta coffee prices. That move is boosting attention on ICE’s role in commodities markets, though the direct stock impact is less clear.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary also notes ICE’s Q1 revenue grew 13.5% year over year to about $3.7 billion, showing the business remains fundamentally healthy ahead of its next earnings update.
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley cut its price target to $163 from $187 and kept an Equal Weight rating, reflecting more cautious near-term expectations for the stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts have also pointed to softer June volume trends and weaker trading activity in some futures segments, which has led to estimate cuts and is weighing on investor sentiment before ICE’s late-July earnings report.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling remains a mild overhang, with ICE executives and directors having made no open-market purchases over the past six months.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ICE. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Intercontinental Exchange from $193.00 to $153.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Intercontinental Exchange from $187.00 to $163.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Raymond James Financial set a $208.00 price objective on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a research note on Monday. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Intercontinental Exchange from $201.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on Intercontinental Exchange in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $183.33.

Intercontinental Exchange Stock Performance

NYSE:ICE opened at $134.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $76.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $142.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $155.59. Intercontinental Exchange Inc. has a 1-year low of $121.79 and a 1-year high of $189.35.

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.23 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.88 billion. Intercontinental Exchange had a net margin of 30.06% and a return on equity of 14.99%. Intercontinental Exchange’s quarterly revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Intercontinental Exchange Inc. will post 8.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Intercontinental Exchange news, General Counsel Andrew J. Surdykowski sold 4,573 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.56, for a total transaction of $693,083.88. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 45,473 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,891,887.88. The trade was a 9.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Sharon Bowen sold 667 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.28, for a total value of $100,903.76. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,280,848.56. This trade represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 13,425 shares of company stock valued at $2,046,324 over the last ninety days. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) is a global operator of exchanges, clearing houses and data services that provides infrastructure for the trading, clearing, settlement and information needs of financial and commodity markets. Founded in 2000 by Jeffrey C. Sprecher as an electronic energy trading platform, the company has grown through organic expansion and acquisitions to operate a broad portfolio of assets spanning listed equities, futures and options, fixed income, and over-the-counter derivatives.