IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Down 7.7% – What’s Next?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s stock price dropped 7.7% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $38.64 and last traded at $39.18. Approximately 19,667,888 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 24,783,514 shares. The stock had previously closed at $42.46.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on IONQ. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of IonQ in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of IonQ from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $75.00 target price on IonQ in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of IonQ in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wedbush began coverage on IonQ in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, IonQ has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.92.

IonQ Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $14.93 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.41 and a beta of 3.28. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $42.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.36.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.56) by $0.23. The company had revenue of $80.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.47 million. IonQ had a negative net margin of 553.27% and a negative return on equity of 22.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 286.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.70) EPS. On average, analysts predict that IonQ, Inc. will post -2.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at IonQ

In other IonQ news, Director Gabrielle B. Toledano sold 2,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.01, for a total value of $151,662.57. Following the sale, the director owned 11,154 shares in the company, valued at $613,581.54. This trade represents a 19.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathryn K. Chou sold 2,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.02, for a total transaction of $151,690.14. Following the sale, the director directly owned 62,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,444,692.16. The trade was a 4.22% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 9,329 shares of company stock valued at $513,216 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of IONQ. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of IonQ by 15.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,070,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,026,000 after purchasing an additional 143,714 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of IonQ by 27.4% in the second quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 88,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,694,000 after buying an additional 18,953 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of IonQ in the second quarter valued at approximately $10,819,000. Carlson Financial Inc. bought a new position in IonQ in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $366,000. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in IonQ by 5,901.1% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 28,318,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,508,260,000 after buying an additional 27,846,924 shares during the period. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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. It also provides contracts associated with the design, development, and construction of specialized quantum computing hardware systems; maintenance and support services; and consulting services related to co-developing algorithms on quantum computing systems.