ICE net revenues rose 5% to $2.67B and adjusted EPS 5% to $1.90 as 8% recurring-revenue growth offset a 21% drop in energy futures volume; GAAP EPS of $1.69 (+14%) was lifted by investment gains.
Revenue
$2.7B
+4.8% YoY
Net income
$958M
+12.6% YoY
Diluted EPS
$1.69
+14.2% YoY
Operating margin
52.2%
Overview
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which runs the New York Stock Exchange, the ICE futures exchanges and clearing houses, a bond-data business and the Encompass/Black Knight mortgage software platforms, grew net revenues 5% to $2.67 billion in the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. GAAP diluted earnings per share rose 14% to $1.69, but a good part of that came from investment gains outside the operating business. Adjusted EPS, which strips those gains and acquisition amortization out, rose 5% to $1.90.
The quarter's pattern: subscription-style (recurring) revenue grew 8%, while trading revenue grew only 2% because energy futures volume fell 21% against a very busy second quarter of 2025. Growth in interest-rate futures, agricultural contracts, NYSE equity trading and data products covered that gap.
A note on "revenue" here: ICE reports total revenues of $3.61 billion, but that figure includes pass-through costs, mainly $288 million of SEC Section 31 fees (a regulatory fee ICE collects from traders and hands to the SEC) and $657 million of liquidity rebates, routing and clearing payments to trading firms. This report uses net revenues (total revenues less those transaction-based expenses) throughout, as ICE does.
Key metrics
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Net revenues (total revenues less transaction-based expenses)
$2,666M
$2,543M
+4.8%
Total revenues (gross)
$3,611M
$3,262M
+10.7%
Operating income
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For the first half of 2026, net revenues were $5.64 billion (+12.5%), GAAP diluted EPS $4.18 (vs. $2.86) and adjusted diluted EPS $4.25 (vs. $3.54). The first quarter was much stronger than the second because of volatility around the U.S.-Iran conflict that began in late February, which ICE's filing says "primarily impacted our first quarter volumes."
Takeaway: GAAP EPS growth of 14% overstates this quarter; the cleaner number is adjusted EPS growth of 5%, which matches net revenue growth of 5%. The two diverge because of a $63 million fair-value gain on equity investments (mostly a $62 million unrealized gain on ICE's stake in crypto firm Bakkt) and lower acquisition amortization. The underlying story is that recurring data and listings revenue (+8%) steadied a quarter in which ICE's largest trading business, energy, shrank 13%.
Why GAAP and adjusted EPS diverged
ICE's "adjusted" figures remove items that don't reflect day-to-day operations. In Q2 the gap moved in ICE's favor on a GAAP basis:
Investment gains: "Other income, net" jumped to $74 million from $5 million. The filing attributes this to a $62 million unrealized gain on Bakkt (ICE stopped using equity-method accounting for Bakkt on April 30, 2026, and now marks it to market price each quarter) plus $17 million of equity-method income, mostly its share of OCC's profit. Adjusted results exclude $63 million of fair-value adjustments and $17 million of investee income.
Lower amortization: amortization of acquired intangibles fell to $237 million from $253 million because some assets from ICE's 2015 and 2020 acquisitions finished amortizing in 2025.
A $10 million reversal of a previously recorded regulatory accrual reduced SG&A expense this quarter.
The effective tax rate was 24% in both periods. Diluted share count fell to 566 million from 575 million because of buybacks, which added roughly 1.6 percentage points to per-share growth on its own.
Segment performance
Segment
Q2 2026 net revenue
Q2 2025
YoY
Op margin Q2 2026
Op margin Q2 2025
Adj. op margin Q2 2026
Exchanges
$1,464M
$1,415M
+3%
74%
75%
75%
Fixed Income & Data Services
$645M
$597M
+8%
42%
37%
46%
Mortgage Technology
$557M
$531M
+5%
8%
2%
43%
Exchanges: energy down, nearly everything else up
Exchanges revenue line
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY
Energy futures & options
$518M
$595M
-13%
Ags and metals
$87M
$65M
+35%
Financials (interest rates and other)
$192M
$158M
+21%
Cash equities & equity options, net
$140M
$123M
+15%
OTC and other
$111M
$96M
+15%
Data & connectivity services
$287M
$255M
+12%
Listings
$129M
$123M
+5%
Energy is ICE's single largest trading franchise, and it went backwards. Contract volume fell 21% (oil -25%, natural gas -13%, environmentals -7%). The filing puts the oil decline down to "a confluence of prior period geopolitical risks and macroeconomic uncertainty": Q2 2025 was an unusually active quarter to compare against. Revenue fell less than volume (-13% vs. -21%) because the average fee per energy contract ("rate per contract") rose 10% to $1.90.
Interest-rate futures volume rose 24% and revenue 25%, which the filing ties to volatility after the U.S.-Iran conflict "materially altered central bank rate expectations."
Agricultural and metals volume rose 36%, driven by sugar (+30%) and coffee and cocoa.
NYSE cash equities: handled volume rose 12% and net revenue rose to $102 million from $83 million. Equity options volume rose 44%, but revenue slipped to $38 million from $40 million because ICE earned less per contract (rate per contract $0.04 vs. $0.06).
Open interest (contracts still held open at quarter-end, an indicator of future trading activity) hit a record 118.1 million contracts, up 20%, with financial futures up 46%. More open positions tend to support trading and clearing fees in later quarters.
The segment's operating margin (operating income divided by net revenue) slipped a point to 74% as expenses rose 9% against 3% revenue growth. About $5 million of the segment's revenue growth came from a stronger pound and euro.
Fixed Income & Data Services: the steadiest growth
Revenue rose 8% to $645 million. Recurring revenue (+10% to $531 million) did the work: fixed income data and analytics +9% (pricing, reference data and index products), and data and network technology +11% (driven by the ICE Global Network). Transaction revenue was flat at $114 million: bond trading fees fell 4% as volatility cooled, while CDS (credit default swap) clearing revenue rose 2% on $6.2 trillion of notional value cleared.
Annual Subscription Value (the data subscriptions in place for the next 12 months) was $2.080 billion at June 30, up 7.9% year on year. That is the best indicator of where this segment's recurring revenue is heading. Operating expenses rose only 1%, so the operating margin widened 5 points to 42%.
Mortgage Technology: small GAAP profit, healthy adjusted margin
Revenue rose 5% to $557 million. Transaction revenue grew 11% (closing solutions +14% on higher mortgage volume through MERS and Simplifile; origination technology +5%). Recurring revenue grew only 3%: servicing software, the biggest line at $226 million, rose 2% because new clients and price increases were partly offset by fewer loans on the platform after customers merged.
The 8% GAAP operating margin is low because the segment carries $184 million per quarter of amortization of intangibles from the 2023 Black Knight acquisition and $10 million of integration costs. Excluding those, the adjusted margin was 43%, up from 42%. Headcount across ICE fell 1% to 12,725, which the filing attributes to Black Knight synergies. The segment remains exposed to mortgage rates: the filing notes that higher mortgage rates "have resulted in reduced consumer and investor demand for mortgages."
Cash, capital returns and debt
Operating cash flow for the first half was $3.32 billion; adjusted free cash flow (after capital spending and excluding Section 31 fee timing) was $2.60 billion, up from $2.02 billion.
ICE returned $945 million to shareholders in Q2 ($651 million of buybacks) and $1.8 billion in the first half ($1.2 billion of buybacks, $591 million of dividends). The board raised the buyback authorization to up to $4.0 billion, effective July 1, 2026.
Debt has not been paid down this year. Outstanding debt was $19.8 billion at June 30 ($18.6 billion of senior notes at a 3.7% average cost plus $1.2 billion of commercial paper), slightly above $19.6 billion at the end of 2025. Cash went to buybacks and investments instead, including an additional $600 million into Polymarket preferred stock in March. ICE's Polymarket stake was carried at about $2.0 billion at June 30.
After the quarter: the MarketAxess deal changes the balance sheet
On July 29, 2026, ICE agreed to buy MarketAxess, an electronic bond-trading platform, for about $6.0 billion ($167 per share) in cash, expected to close in the first half of 2027 subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. MarketAxess would sit alongside ICE Bonds in the Fixed Income & Data Services segment, where ICE's own bond-execution revenue is only $31 million a quarter.
The deal is funded with debt. According to an August 21 8-K, ICE issued senior notes with gross proceeds of $3.73 billion on August 20, signed a $2.0 billion term loan and added $1.5 billion of acquisition revolving commitments, which let it cancel the $6.2 billion bridge loan. Debt will therefore rise well above the $19.8 billion at June 30. With buybacks also designated a "priority" by the CFO, how fast ICE brings leverage back down after closing is the key balance-sheet question for 2027.
Guidance and outlook
Management's updated 2026 guidance (July 30):
Item
Guidance
Exchange recurring revenue growth
High-single digits
Fixed Income & Data Services recurring revenue growth
7% – 8%
2026 GAAP operating expenses
$5.140 – $5.180 billion (April: $5.095 – $5.145B)
2026 adjusted operating expenses
$4.190 – $4.230 billion (April: $4.145 – $4.195B)
Q3 2026 GAAP operating expenses
$1.298 – $1.308 billion
Q3 2026 adjusted operating expenses
$1.063 – $1.073 billion
2026 capital expenditures
~$850 million
Q3 2026 diluted shares
560 – 566 million
The full-year expense range was raised by about $45 million at both ends compared with April. Q3 adjusted expense guidance of $1.063–1.073 billion is up from $1.038 billion in Q2, so cost growth is picking up in the second half.
Our read: Recurring revenue, now just over half of net revenue, is growing at 8% and is backed by 7.9% growth in data subscriptions, which gives ICE a dependable base. Trading revenue is the swing factor. After a record first quarter, Q2 showed how quickly energy volumes can fall back once a geopolitical shock fades. The 20% rise in open interest is the most encouraging trading signal for the second half. On the other side, rising expenses and the extra interest cost of the MarketAxess debt will weigh on earnings growth. Readers should track adjusted EPS rather than GAAP EPS, because GAAP results now include mark-to-market swings on stakes in Bakkt and Polymarket.