INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE, INC. vs SCHWAB CHARLES CORP, two Financial Services stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Intercontinental Exchange runs the toll booth, a 45% operating margin on the data and trading rails it owns, and the market pays just over 20 times trailing earnings for that flow. Schwab is a different bet entirely: a brokerage whose economics swing on rates and customer cash, priced nearer 17 times. Schwab earns the higher return on equity here, 19% to ICE's 13%, and turns slightly more price into free cash, 6% against 5.8%, while keeping more of each revenue dollar at a 38% net margin to ICE's 30%. ICE pays the bigger dividend, 1.4% to 1.2%, and carries more debt against equity. The price on ICE is paying for the durability of an exchange; the price on Schwab is paying for the scale of a balance sheet that lives off deposits and rates.
Comparison updated 2026-06-15.
| Metric | ICE | SCHW |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $135.18 | $103.13 |
| Market cap | $77.1B | $180.7B |
| Sector | Financial Services | Financial Services |
| Stage | Mature | Growth |
| Implied growth (priced in) | +1.4% | — |
| P/E | 19.7 | 20.5 |
| P/B | 2.61 | 3.67 |
| P/S | 5.89 | 7.28 |
| EV/EBITDA | 13.9 | — |
| Revenue growth | +7.2% | +21.5% |
| Operating margin | 45.4% | — |
| Net margin | 30.1% | 38.0% |
| Return on equity | 13.3% | 19.1% |
| Return on assets | 2.2% | 1.9% |
| Dividend yield | 1.4% | 1.1% |
| Debt / equity | 0.69 | 0.42 |
| Current ratio | 1.01 | — |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 0.59 | 0.42 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 6 / 9 | 9 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.