IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $50.00 price objective on the stock.

IONQ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of IonQ from $50.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Benchmark upped their price target on shares of IonQ from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of IonQ from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

IonQ Price Performance

IONQ opened at $37.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.65 and a beta of 2.59. IonQ has a 1-year low of $6.22 and a 1-year high of $54.74. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.37.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.14. IonQ had a negative net margin of 457.85% and a negative return on equity of 36.82%. The firm had revenue of $7.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.51 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.19) earnings per share. IonQ’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that IonQ will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 65,000 shares of IonQ stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.57, for a total transaction of $2,507,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 552,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,313,473.44. The trade was a 10.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Wendy Thomas sold 16,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.43, for a total value of $658,323.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 61,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,410,947.35. The trade was a 21.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,766,957 shares of company stock valued at $111,561,975. 5.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IONQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in IonQ by 1,310.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,468,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,095,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,231 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of IonQ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,060,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of IonQ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,519,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of IonQ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,513,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of IonQ by 439.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 857,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,800,000 after acquiring an additional 698,146 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About IonQ

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.