Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) Shares Down 8.5% – Time to Sell?

Rigetti Computing, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI)’s share price dropped 8.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $17.63 and last traded at $18.17. Approximately 33,792,668 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average daily volume of 33,286,508 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark lowered their price objective on Rigetti Computing from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Alliance Global Partners reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Rigetti Computing in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Williams Trading set a $40.00 price target on Rigetti Computing in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Rigetti Computing in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $30.00 price objective for the company. Finally, B. Riley raised Rigetti Computing from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.60.

Rigetti Computing Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $6.00 billion, a PE ratio of -13.98 and a beta of 1.70. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.53.

Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.02. Rigetti Computing had a negative return on equity of 21.98% and a negative net margin of 4,741.49%.The company had revenue of $1.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Rigetti Computing, Inc. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of RGTI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Rigetti Computing by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,970,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,750,000 after acquiring an additional 3,924,171 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Rigetti Computing by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,853,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,997,000 after purchasing an additional 946,850 shares during the last quarter. Marex Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Rigetti Computing in the 2nd quarter valued at about $87,414,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Rigetti Computing by 22.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,484,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,910,000 after buying an additional 1,206,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in Rigetti Computing by 90.9% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,081,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,788,000 after buying an additional 1,467,483 shares during the period. 35.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Rigetti Computing

Rigetti Computing is a pioneering quantum computing company that designs and manufactures superconducting quantum processors alongside a complementary software stack. Founded in 2013 by CEO Chad Rigetti, the company has developed end-to-end quantum systems—from cryogenic hardware to control electronics—to advance the performance and scalability of quantum machines.

At the core of Rigetti’s offering is its Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, which enables developers and enterprises to access quantum processing units (QPUs) and hybrid quantum-classical workflows via the cloud.