Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we use our "This Just In" column to examine some of these picks -- and the track record of the firm behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.
In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 115,000 members, some of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts do.
Enough top-performing CAPS investors have turned bullish on InterContinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) recently to upgrade it from its three-star rating to a more formidable four stars. A total of 785 investors have given their opinion on ICE, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.
Founded by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), and major brokerages to make trading more global, ICE joins many other trading platforms offering an electronic over-the-counter futures exchange. With the extreme volatility in the market lately, trading volume is growing substantially for ICE and other exchanges like CME Group (Nasdaq: CME), NYMEX, and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ). For its part, ICE has continued to break its own trading volume records several times over the past week.
With estimated future five-year annual revenue growth of 22%, ICE is in a good position to profit from global futures trading. Some also anticipate the carbon credit market becoming the world's biggest commodities market. With companies like General Electric (NYSE: GE) and DuPont (NYSE: DD) already hopping on the green bandwagon in a big way, someone will need to provide the platform for trading carbon credits among companies.
With strong numbers reported for ICE's recent second quarter -- 44% higher revenue and a 58% increase in profits -- and a share price down by 55% year to date, the board had the confidence to authorize a repurchase of up to $500 million in ICE stock over the next 12 months. More than 94% of CAPS members rating InterContinentalExchange also have confidence -- along with some top fund managers -- that the stock will outperform the market.
To see what the very best CAPS analysts are saying now about InterContinentalExchange -- as well as other winning stocks they are picking -- head on over to CAPS and have a look.
More Foolishness:
Closed for 15 months – opening 10 days only! Get notified ahead of time as our expert portfolio manager invests $1 MILLION in the best opportunities from across The Motley Fool’s premium investment services. This is the first open since August 2008, by invitation only. Enter email below.
Terms & Conditions
RSS Headlines
Fool UK