Financial Review: Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) vs. Canaccord Genuity Group (OTCMKTS:CCORF)

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) and Canaccord Genuity Group (OTCMKTS:CCORF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.7% of Canaccord Genuity Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Intercontinental Exchange and Canaccord Genuity Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Intercontinental Exchange	$12.64 billion	6.68	$3.31 billion	$7.08	21.24
Canaccord Genuity Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.78	13.39

Intercontinental Exchange has higher revenue and earnings than Canaccord Genuity Group. Canaccord Genuity 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Intercontinental Exchange and Canaccord Genuity Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intercontinental Exchange	0	2	9	1	2.92
Canaccord Genuity Group	0	0	1	0	3.00

Intercontinental Exchange currently has a consensus price target of $183.33, indicating a potential upside of 21.94%. Given Intercontinental Exchange’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than Canaccord Genuity Group.

Dividends

Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Canaccord Genuity Group pays an annual dividend of $0.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 29.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canaccord Genuity Group pays out 19.3% 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 increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years. Canaccord Genuity Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Intercontinental Exchange and Canaccord Genuity Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	30.08%	14.95%	2.77%
Canaccord Genuity Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Intercontinental Exchange beats Canaccord Genuity Group on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of market infrastructure, data services, and technology solutions for financial institutions, corporations, and government entities in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, India, Abu Dhabi, Israel, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Exchanges, Fixed Income and Data Services, and Mortgage Technology. The company operates regulated marketplaces for listing, trading, and clearing an array of derivatives contracts and financial securities, such as commodities, interest rates, foreign exchange, and equities, as well as corporate and exchange-traded funds; and trading venues, including regulated exchanges and clearing houses. It also offers energy, agricultural and metals, and financial futures and options; and cash equities and equity options, and over-the-counter and other markets, as well as listings and data and connectivity services. In addition, the company provides fixed income data and analytic, fixed income execution, CDS clearing, and other multi-asset class data and network services. Further, it offers proprietary and comprehensive mortgage origination platform, which serves residential mortgage loans; closing solutions that provides customers connectivity to the mortgage supply chain and facilitates the secure exchange of information; data and analytics services; and Data as a Service for lenders to access data and origination information. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. operates as a full-service investment dealer in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Crown Dependencies, and Australia. It operates through two segments: Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management. The Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets segment offers investment banking, advisory, research, and trading services for corporate, institutional, and government clients. Its Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management segment provides brokerage services and investment advice to retail and institutional clients. Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.