UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Cuts PT to $155 on Intercontinental Exchange on Post-Merger Thoughts

Stifel Nicolaus reiterated its Buy rating on Intercontinental Exchange

and lowered its price target from $165 to $155. Stifel Nicolaus noted, "Despite what we see as a challenging integration of the non-core cash equity and options businesses, we remain positive on the transaction due to the compelling long-term earnings accretion potential from expense and clearing synergies. As a result, our near-term outlook for ICE shares is incrementally less bullish, but we believe the stock offers attractive risk/reward on a 12-18 month horizon. As such, we are removing ICE from the Select List but maintain our Buy rating; and we reduce our target price to $155, reflecting 15x our combined "transition year" (2013) EPS estimate of $10.35." Intercontinental Exchange closed at $126.92 on Thursday.