Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Takes Position in Intercontinental Exchange Inc. $ICE

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE:ICE) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 187,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,079,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ICE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Intercontinental Exchange by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,153,170 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,770,647,000 after buying an additional 413,639 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 17,398.1% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 53,798,055 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,245,085,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,653,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,154,914,000 after acquiring an additional 837,208 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,875,593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,571,212,000 after acquiring an additional 158,450 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ICE has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $195.00 price target (up from $190.00) on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $182.00 price objective (up from $180.00) on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Intercontinental Exchange from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial set a $208.00 target price on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Intercontinental Exchange from $187.00 to $163.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Sharon Bowen sold 667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.28, for a total transaction of $100,903.76. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,077 shares in the company, valued at $2,280,848.56. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Andrew J. Surdykowski sold 4,573 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 45,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,891,887.88. This represents a 9.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 18,376 shares of company stock worth $2,746,946. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Intercontinental Exchange Price Performance

Intercontinental Exchange stock opened at $157.04 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $141.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $151.73. Intercontinental Exchange Inc. has a 12 month low of $121.79 and a 12 month high of $181.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.16 billion, a PE ratio of 22.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.92.

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.63 billion. Intercontinental Exchange had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 14.95%. Intercontinental Exchange’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.81 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Intercontinental Exchange Inc. will post 8.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Intercontinental Exchange Profile

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.