IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Trading 21.6% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was up 21.6% during trading on Thursday after Benchmark raised their price target on the stock from $12.00 to $22.00. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. IonQ traded as high as $20.20 and last traded at $20.00. Approximately 22,410,355 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 208% from the average daily volume of 7,268,965 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.45.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on IONQ. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Craig Hallum dropped their target price on IonQ from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th.

Insider Transactions at IonQ

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.72, for a total transaction of $98,184.48. Following the sale, the executive now owns 648,783 shares in the company, valued at $6,954,953.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of IonQ by 1,598.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,084,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,825,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,909 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in IonQ by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,824,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,062,000 after acquiring an additional 918,265 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel purchased a new position in shares of IonQ in the third quarter valued at about $5,036,000. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of IonQ during the third quarter valued at about $3,749,000. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of IonQ during the first quarter worth about $2,410,000. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

IonQ Trading Up 26.6 %

The business has a fifty day moving average of $10.49 and a 200-day moving average of $8.79. The company has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of -25.32 and a beta of 1.89.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by ($0.01). IonQ had a negative net margin of 525.13% and a negative return on equity of 34.02%. The company had revenue of $12.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.22) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 102.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.84 EPS for the current year.

IonQ Company Profile

IonQ, Inc engages in the development of general-purpose quantum computing systems in the United States. It sells access to quantum computers of various qubit capacities. The company makes access to its quantum computers through cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon Braket, Microsoft’s Azure Quantum, and Google’s Cloud Marketplace, as well as through its cloud service.