Shares of interdealer broker ICAP plc (LON:IAP) have been on a steady climb since the summer, and today topped the £5.00 mark for the first time since May 2011 – marking not just a 52 week high for ICAP shares but also its best level in almost four years.
The rise in ICAP’s shares mark a parallel move upward in the volatility of most of the instruments traded across ICAP’s platforms, including FX. As we recently reported ICAP’s Forex ECN unit, EBS, has seen a return to above $100 billion average daily volumes in every month since September, after not having had a sniff of $100 billion ADV since mid 2013, losing market share to rival Thomson Reuters and its acquired unit FXall as well as to recently BATS’ recently acquired Hotspot FX.
ICAP has also increased its focus on cost cutting, for example recently announcing that it will merge its EBS unit with its other electronic brokering business BrokerTec.
The financial community, however, remains decidedly mixed in its outlook for ICAP shares and as to whether or not the shares will continue on their current tear.
As per the above table, of seven investment firms covering ICAP only two had a ‘buy’ or ‘overweight’ rating. And the highest Price Target among all seven firms is £5.00 – below ICAP’s current share price, now that it has crossed the £5 mark.
ICAP plc one year share price graph. Source: Google Finance.