Critical Contrast: Future FinTech Group (NASDAQ:FTFT) and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE)
by Michael Walen · The Markets DailyFuture FinTech Group (NASDAQ:FTFT – Get Free Report) and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
0.2% of Future FinTech Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Future FinTech Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Intercontinental Exchange shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk and Volatility
Future FinTech Group has a beta of 1.8, suggesting that its share price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intercontinental Exchange has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Future FinTech Group and Intercontinental Exchange, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Future FinTech Group | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
| Intercontinental Exchange | 0 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 2.92 |
Intercontinental Exchange has a consensus target price of $184.17, suggesting a potential upside of 17.52%. Given Intercontinental Exchange’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Intercontinental Exchange is more favorable than Future FinTech Group.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Future FinTech Group and Intercontinental Exchange”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Future FinTech Group | $3.83 million | 4.65 | -$4.62 million | ($30.16) | -0.06 |
| Intercontinental Exchange | $12.64 billion | 6.96 | $3.31 billion | $7.08 | 22.13 |
Intercontinental Exchange has higher revenue and earnings than Future FinTech Group. Future FinTech Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Intercontinental Exchange, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Future FinTech Group and Intercontinental Exchange’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Future FinTech Group | -157.53% | -12.22% | -10.08% |
| Intercontinental Exchange | 30.08% | 14.95% | 2.77% |
Summary
Intercontinental Exchange beats Future FinTech Group on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Future FinTech Group
Future FinTech Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates online shopping platforms in People’s Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Supply Chain Financing Service and Trading Business, Asset Management Service, and Others. The company offers cross-border money transfer service, brokerage and investment banking, and cryptocurrency mining farm business. It also engages in the trading of coal, aluminum ingots, sand, and steel; and E-commerce, digital wallet safety management, blockchain code auditing and operations, cryptocurrency mining, metaverse and big data maintenance services. The company was formerly known as SkyPeople Fruit Juice, Inc. and changed its name to Future FinTech Group Inc. in June 2017. Future FinTech Group Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.
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.