HP (NYSE:HPQ) vs. IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Head-To-Head Review

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) and HP (NYSE:HPQ) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for IonQ and HP, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IonQ	1	4	9	0	2.57
HP	5	8	0	2	1.93

IonQ currently has a consensus price target of $69.92, indicating a potential upside of 77.27%. HP has a consensus price target of $25.17, indicating a potential downside of 22.94%. Given IonQ’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe IonQ is more favorable than HP.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.4% of IonQ shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.5% of HP shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of IonQ shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of HP shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

IonQ has a beta of 3.3, indicating that its stock price is 230% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HP has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares IonQ and HP’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IonQ	-553.27%	-22.29%	-13.20%
HP	4.14%	-947.78%	7.43%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares IonQ and HP”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IonQ	$130.02 million	115.57	-$510.38 million	($4.66)	-8.46
HP	$55.30 billion	0.53	$2.53 billion	$2.62	12.47

HP has higher revenue and earnings than IonQ. IonQ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HP, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

HP beats IonQ on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in College Park, Maryland.

About HP

HP Inc. provides products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. It operates through Personal Systems and Printing segments. The Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, retail point-of-sale systems, displays and other related accessories, software, support, and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The Printing segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, solutions, and services, as well as scanning devices; and laserJet and enterprise, inkjet and printing, graphics, and 3D printing solutions. The company was formerly known as Hewlett-Packard Company and changed its name to HP Inc. in October 2015. HP Inc. was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.