Should You Worry About Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.'s (NYSE:ICE) CEO Pay Cheque?

Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card!

Jeff Sprecher has been the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) since 2000. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at other large companies. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels.

Check out our latest analysis for Intercontinental Exchange

How Does Jeff Sprecher's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. is worth US$48b, and total annual CEO compensation is US$15m. (This number is for the twelve months until December 2018). That's a modest increase of 0.4% on the prior year year. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$1.1m. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b and the median CEO total compensation was US$11m. (We took a wide range because the CEOs of massive companies tend to be paid similar amounts - even though some are quite a bit bigger than others).

That means Jeff Sprecher receives fairly typical remuneration for the CEO of a large company. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance.

You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Intercontinental Exchange has changed over time.

NYSE:ICE CEO Compensation, June 10th 2019
NYSE:ICE CEO Compensation, June 10th 2019

Is Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Growing?

Over the last three years Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 21% per year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 6.9% over the last year.

This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. It's nice to see a little revenue growth, as this is consistent with healthy business conditions. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Been A Good Investment?

Boasting a total shareholder return of 70% over three years, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. has done well by shareholders. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don't mind if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for a company of its size.

In Summary...

Jeff Sprecher is paid around what is normal the leaders of larger companies.

Shareholders would surely be happy to see that shareholder returns have been great, and the earnings per share are up. So one could argue the CEO compensation is quite modest, if you consider company performance! So you may want to check if insiders are buying Intercontinental Exchange shares with their own money (free access).

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.