WealthShield Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 24,048 Intercontinental Exchange Inc. $ICE

WealthShield Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE:ICE) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 24,048 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,961,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Intercontinental Exchange by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,153,170 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,770,647,000 after purchasing an additional 413,639 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Intercontinental Exchange by 17,398.1% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 53,798,055 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Intercontinental Exchange in the second quarter worth about $6,245,085,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Intercontinental Exchange by 3.4% in 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 buying an additional 837,208 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Intercontinental Exchange by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,875,593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,571,212,000 after buying an additional 158,450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.30% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Intercontinental Exchange news, CTO Mayur Kapani sold 4,271 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.20, for a total transaction of $645,775.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 67,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,279,785.60. This represents a 5.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director William Jefferson Hague sold 1,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.46, for a total value of $185,900.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,807,608.72. This represents a 6.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 20,200 shares of company stock valued at $3,035,385 over the last ninety days. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Intercontinental Exchange Stock Performance

Shares of ICE stock opened at $161.29 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $142.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $151.69. Intercontinental Exchange Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.79 and a 52 week high of $181.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.55 billion, a PE ratio of 22.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.92.

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.63 billion. Intercontinental Exchange had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 14.95%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.81 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Intercontinental Exchange Inc. will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ICE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Intercontinental Exchange from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $177.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Intercontinental Exchange from $208.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Intercontinental Exchange from $187.00 to $163.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $195.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Intercontinental Exchange in a report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $183.33.

About Intercontinental Exchange

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.