Critical Survey: Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG) vs. Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE)
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemIntercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE – Get Free Report) and Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.6% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.4% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westwood Holdings Group has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Intercontinental Exchange and Westwood Holdings Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Intercontinental Exchange | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 2.69 |
| Westwood Holdings Group | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Intercontinental Exchange presently has a consensus price target of $182.62, suggesting a potential upside of 21.58%. Given Intercontinental Exchange’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than Westwood Holdings Group.
Profitability
This table compares Intercontinental Exchange and Westwood Holdings Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Intercontinental Exchange | 30.08% | 14.95% | 2.77% |
| Westwood Holdings Group | 7.73% | 8.10% | 6.59% |
Dividends
Intercontinental Exchange pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Westwood Holdings Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Intercontinental Exchange pays out 29.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Westwood Holdings Group pays out 68.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Intercontinental Exchange has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Intercontinental Exchange and Westwood Holdings Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Intercontinental Exchange | $12.64 billion | 6.67 | $3.31 billion | $7.08 | 21.21 |
| Westwood Holdings Group | $97.76 million | 1.82 | $7.06 million | $0.88 | 21.28 |
Intercontinental Exchange has higher revenue and earnings than Westwood Holdings Group. Intercontinental Exchange is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Westwood Holdings Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Intercontinental Exchange beats Westwood Holdings Group on 13 of the 18 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 Westwood Holdings Group
Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages investment assets and provides services for its clients. The company operates in two segments, Advisory and Trust. The Advisory segment provides investment advisory services to corporate retirement plans, public retirement plans, endowments, foundations, individuals, and the Westwood Funds; and investment sub-advisory services to mutual funds, pooled investment vehicles, and its Trust segment. The Trust segment offers trust and custodial services; and participates in common trust funds that it sponsors to institutions and high net worth individuals. Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Dallas, Texas.