Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange received 295 more outperform votes than Moody's when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.12% of users gave Intercontinental Exchange an outperform vote while only 59.28% of users gave Moody's an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Intercontinental Exchange	Outperform Votes 838 72.12%	Underperform Votes 324 27.88%
Moody's	Outperform Votes 543 59.28%	Underperform Votes 373 40.72%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership 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. 1.1% 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 hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ICE or MCO more profitable?

Moody's has a net margin of 29.05% compared to Intercontinental Exchange's net margin of 21.31%. Moody's' return on equity of 57.97% beat Intercontinental Exchange's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	21.31%	12.75%	2.50%
Moody's	29.05%	57.97%	14.60%

Do analysts prefer ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange currently has a consensus price target of $174.13, indicating a potential upside of 9.32%. Moody's has a consensus price target of $500.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.02%. Given Intercontinental Exchange's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, 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)	2 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87
Moody's	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more volatility and risk, ICE or MCO?

Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody's has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

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 1.1%. Moody's pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 42.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moody's pays out 31.1% 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 increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to ICE or MCO?

In the previous week, Intercontinental Exchange had 7 more articles in the media than Moody's. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Intercontinental Exchange and 28 mentions for Moody's. Intercontinental Exchange's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat Moody's' score of 0.97 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	32 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Moody's	22 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation and 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	$9.90B	9.24	$2.37B	$4.22	37.75
Moody's	$5.92B	14.72	$1.61B	$10.95	43.90

Summary

Intercontinental Exchange beats Moody's on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.