CME Group (CME) Competitors

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

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

87.8% of CME Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of CME Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is CME or ICE a better dividend stock?

CME Group pays an annual dividend of $4.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. CME Group pays out 48.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 42.7% 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. CME Group has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. CME Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts rate CME or ICE?

CME Group presently has a consensus price target of $226.20, indicating a potential downside of 4.69%. Intercontinental Exchange has a consensus price target of $175.07, indicating a potential upside of 12.97%. Given Intercontinental Exchange's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than CME Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CME Group	4 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Intercontinental Exchange	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87

Which has higher valuation & earnings, CME or ICE?

CME Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
CME Group	$6.04B	14.15	$3.23B	$9.51	24.96
Intercontinental Exchange	$11.40B	7.81	$2.37B	$4.22	36.72

Is CME or ICE more profitable?

CME Group has a net margin of 57.34% compared to Intercontinental Exchange's net margin of 21.31%. CME Group's return on equity of 13.39% beat Intercontinental Exchange's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CME Group	57.34%	13.39%	2.81%
Intercontinental Exchange	21.31%	12.75%	2.50%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CME or ICE?

Intercontinental Exchange received 176 more outperform votes than CME Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.02% of users gave Intercontinental Exchange an outperform vote while only 59.04% of users gave CME Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CME Group	Outperform Votes 663 59.04%	Underperform Votes 460 40.96%
Intercontinental Exchange	Outperform Votes 839 72.02%	Underperform Votes 326 27.98%

Which has more risk and volatility, CME or ICE?

CME Group has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to CME or ICE?

In the previous week, Intercontinental Exchange had 8 more articles in the media than CME Group. MarketBeat recorded 31 mentions for Intercontinental Exchange and 23 mentions for CME Group. CME Group's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Intercontinental Exchange's score of 0.87 indicating that CME Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CME Group	13 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Intercontinental Exchange	18 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Intercontinental Exchange beats CME Group on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.