IntercontinentalExchange price target raised to $171 from $151 at JPMorgan

JPMorgan raised the firm’s price target on IntercontinentalExchange to $171 from $151 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm sees the globalization of natural gas and a number of micro trends including decarbonization driving secular growth of exchange trading in energy contracts for ICE. More natural gas molecules in motion over longer distances across more forms touched by more parties leads to more hedging activity, which we expect drives disproportionately more investing activity, the analyst tells investors in a research note. JPMorgan sees ICE and CME both as beneficiaries of greater gas activity, but it expects ICE could be the “by far” bigger beneficiary given its dominant position in Title Transfer Facility, which is emerging as the benchmark for global gas.