Record Quarter — Company-wide
ICE delivered its strongest quarter in company history: adjusted EPS $2.35 (+37% YoY), net revenue $3.0B (+18% YoY), and adjusted operating income $1.9B (+26% YoY).
Intercontinental Exchange
· ICE
April 30th, 2026
Summary
- Earnings Call Date:
- 2026-04-30
- Change Since:
- -17.45%
- Next Earnings Date:
- 2026-07-30
Earnings Call Sentiment
PositiveThe call was strongly positive: broad, record-breaking financial and operational results across Exchange, FIDS, and Mortgage Technology drove high revenue, EPS and free cash flow growth. Management emphasized structural and secular drivers (risk management demand, data & AI, mortgage digitization), executed buybacks, and advanced several product and infrastructure initiatives. Headwinds are largely cyclical, timing-related (mortgage origination below normal, data-center comp timing) or strategic/adoption risks (tokenization), and management communicated plans and prudence to mitigate them.
Company Guidance
Management's formal guidance was fairly narrow: Q1 adjusted operating expenses were $1.035 billion (in line with the midpoint of the updated range) and Q2 adjusted operating expenses are expected to be roughly flat at $1.030–$1.040 billion; Q1 Mortgage Technology recurring revenue was $401 million (including about $4 million of one‑time items) and Q2 recurring revenues are expected to remain around current levels; and for Fixed Income & Data Services they reiterated full‑year recurring revenue targets toward the higher end of a "mid‑single‑digit" growth range — all while underscoring confidence in 2026 given Q1 results (adjusted EPS $2.35, +37% YoY; net revenue $3.0 billion, +18%; adjusted operating income $1.9 billion, +26%; adjusted free cash flow $1.2 billion).
Record Free Cash Flow and Shareholder Returns
First quarter adjusted free cash flow was a record $1.2B. Repurchased approximately $550M of stock (including an incremental $200M) and returned nearly $850M to shareholders including dividends.
Exchange Segment — Outstanding Growth
Exchange net revenues hit a record $1.8B (+27% YoY). Transaction revenues increased 33% YoY. Total futures & options open interest reached new records (+23% YoY) and interest-rate open interest was ~63% above last year.
Derivatives & Market Activity — Broad-based Records
Total average daily volume (ADV) for the quarter rose 45% YoY with March being the highest monthly volume in ICE history. Interest-rate products (e.g., SONIA ADV +120% YoY, open interest more than doubled), Euribor, and major energy contracts all delivered record volumes and participation gains.
Energy Franchise Strength
Global oil complex revenues +47% YoY; natural gas and environmental products revenue +37% YoY. Brent ADV +60% YoY; TTF ADV +61% YoY. Management notes energy open interest through April remained up 6% and continued structural demand for risk management tools.
Fixed Income & Data Services (FIDS) — Record Results
FIDS revenues reached a record $657M (+9% YoY); transaction revenues $143M (+14% YoY); recurring revenues reached a record $514M (+8% YoY). CDS clearing revenue growth ~18% YoY with record notional cleared ($2.7T on March 20).
Index & ETF Momentum
ICE Index ETF AUM reached $829B (+21% YoY). Approximately $2T in assets benchmarked to ICE indices (roughly 2x the level ~9 years ago); Indices business delivered double-digit revenue growth.
Data & Network Technology Expansion
Data & Network Technology revenues +11% YoY, driven by demand for ICE Global Network, consolidated feeds and proximity/data-center services; ICE highlighted a private global data center network connecting 750+ data sources and 150 trading venues across 24 countries.
Mortgage Technology Progress
Mortgage Technology revenues $539M (+6% YoY; pro forma with Black Knight best quarter since Q4 2022). Recurring revenues $401M (includes ~$4M one-time); transaction revenues $138M (+22% YoY) driven by Encompass closed loan and Closing Solutions growth.
Product & Innovation Initiatives
Launched ICE Private Credit Intelligence with Apollo; launched Polymarket signals product for institutional distribution; deployed ICE Risk Model 2 across 1,000+ energy contracts; MCP server for AI/data delivery in ICE data centers; NYSE tokenized securities platform development with Securitize MOU and OKX partnership.
Operational Resilience & Risk Management
Despite heightened volatility, margin frameworks performed—margin calls were met without disruption and markets remained orderly; Treasury Clearing became operationally live following SEC approval in February.
Operator
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's ICE First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Drew, and I'll be the operator on the call today. [Operator Instructions] With that, it's my pleasure to hand over to Steve Eagerton to begin, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, when you are ready.
Steven Eagerton
Good morning. ICE's first quarter 2026 earnings release and presentation can be found in the Investors section of ice.com. These items will be archived, and our call will be available for replay. Today's call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements, which we undertake no obligation to update, represent our current judgment and are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties. For a description of the risks that could cause our results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, please refer to our 2025 Form 10-K, 2026 First Quarter 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. In our earnings supplement, we refer to certain non-GAAP measures. We believe our non-GAAP measures are more reflective of our cash operations and core business performance.
You will find a reconciliation to the equivalent GAAP term in the earnings materials. When used on this call, net revenue refers to revenue net of transaction-based expenses and adjusted earnings refers to adjusted diluted earnings per share. Throughout this presentation, unless otherwise indicated, references to revenue growth are on a constant currency basis. Please see explanatory notes on the second page of the earnings supplement for additional details reg...
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