Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) versus StoneX Group (NASDAQ:SNEX) Critical Review

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) and StoneX Group (NASDAQ:SNEX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of StoneX Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of StoneX Group shares are owned 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.

Risk & Volatility

Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StoneX Group has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intercontinental Exchange	29.62%	15.32%	2.71%
StoneX Group	0.33%	20.18%	1.05%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Intercontinental Exchange and StoneX Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Intercontinental Exchange	$12.64 billion	7.70	$3.31 billion	$7.33	23.75
StoneX Group	$132.38 billion	0.05	$305.90 million	$4.19	13.55

Intercontinental Exchange has higher earnings, but lower revenue than StoneX Group. StoneX 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 ratings and target prices for Intercontinental Exchange and StoneX Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intercontinental Exchange	1	3	12	1	2.76
StoneX Group	0	3	1	0	2.25

Intercontinental Exchange presently has a consensus price target of $189.25, indicating a potential upside of 8.72%. StoneX Group has a consensus price target of $112.00, indicating a potential upside of 97.29%. Given StoneX Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe StoneX Group is more favorable than Intercontinental Exchange.

Summary

Intercontinental Exchange beats StoneX Group on 11 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 StoneX Group

StoneX Group Inc. operates as a global financial services network that connects companies, organizations, traders, and investors to market ecosystem worldwide. The company operates through Commercial, Institutional, Retail, and Global Payments segments. The Commercial segment provides risk management and hedging, exchange-traded and OTC products execution and clearing, voice brokerage, market intelligence, physical trading, and commodity financing and logistics services. The Institutional segment offers equity trading services to institutional clients; clearing and execution services in futures exchanges; brokerage foreign exchange services for the financial institutions and professional traders; and OTC products, as well as originates, structures, and places debt instruments in capital markets. This segment also operates as an institutional dealer in fixed income securities to serve asset managers, commercial bank trust and investment departments, broker-dealers, and insurance companies, as well as engages in asset management business. The Retail segment provides trading services and solutions in the global financial markets, including spot foreign exchange, precious metals trading, and contracts for differences; and wealth management services, as well as offers physical gold and other precious metals in various forms and denominations through Stonexbullion.com. The Global Payments segment provides customized payment, technology, and treasury services to banks and commercial businesses, charities, and non-governmental and government organizations; and pricing and payments services. The company was formerly known as INTL FCStone Inc. and changed its name to StoneX Group Inc. in July 2020. StoneX Group Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in New York, New York.