ICE Earns Upgrade to Strong Buy from Raymond James Ahead of Q3 Earnings

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has been upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform by Raymond James ahead of its Q3 earnings release. Analyst Patrick O'Shaughnessy noted that the company's energy futures trading volumes stabilized in the quarter. The upgrade is based on ICE's strong fundamentals and potential for continued growth in its core businesses.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), a leading provider of marketplaces, clearinghouses, and technology solutions, has been upgraded to a Strong Buy rating by Raymond James ahead of its third-quarter 2025 earnings report. The upgrade comes despite the company facing headwinds in the third quarter, including a lack of market volatility and the absence of major hurricanes affecting North America, which negatively impacted the company’s energy futures trading volumes. Raymond James maintains a price target of $210.00 for ICE, reflecting the firm's confidence in the company's long-term prospects.

ICE's stock, currently valued at $90.16 billion, trades at a P/E ratio of 30.31, with analyst targets ranging from $170 to $225. Despite the challenges in the third quarter, ICE has maintained strong fundamentals, with revenue growing nearly 10% over the last twelve months. Raymond James views these challenges as temporary and expects ICE to capitalize on the globalization of energy trading in the long term. The firm also addressed concerns about artificial intelligence disruption, noting that ICE is unlikely to face significant AI competition.

The recent merger between Rocket Mortgage and Mr. Cooper is expected to serve as a sales catalyst for ICE’s mortgage technology franchise. Additionally, ICE announced a strategic investment of up to $2 billion in the prediction market platform Polymarket, valuing it at approximately $8 billion pre-investment. This investment positions ICE as a global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data, providing institutional investors with sentiment indicators on market-relevant topics and exploring future tokenization initiatives.

In other recent news, ICE reported record open interest across its futures markets for September 2025, with a 15% year-over-year increase, reaching 56.9 million lots. Energy open interest specifically rose 8%, hitting a record 41.0 million lots. Furthermore, The Rt. Hon. the Lord Hill of Oareford CBE has joined ICE’s Board of Directors, expanding the board from 10 to 11 members. Lord Hill currently serves on the Board of Directors of ICE Endex Markets and is expected to join ICE Futures Europe, pending regulatory approval.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an Outperform rating on ICE, maintaining a price target of $202.00. Raymond James highlighted that ICE has built a "robust and diversified platform" capable of driving attractive revenue and earnings growth across various market environments, with shares currently trading at approximately 21 times the firm’s 2026 non-GAAP earnings per share estimate.

This upgrade by Raymond James underscores ICE's resilience and potential for continued growth in its core businesses, positioning the company favorably for the future.

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Intercontinental Exchange stock rating upgraded to Strong Buy by Raymond James^[1] https://www.investing.com/news/analyst-ratings/intercontinental-exchange-stock-rating-upgraded-to-strong-buy-by-raymond-james-93CH-4283444