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

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 95.65% from the company’s current price.

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on IonQ from $13.00 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.50.

IonQ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IONQ traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $9.20. 6,295,521 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,541,065. The firm has a market cap of $1.92 billion, a PE ratio of -11.79 and a beta of 2.17. IonQ has a fifty-two week low of $6.00 and a fifty-two week high of $21.60. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.86.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.08 million. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 28.27% and a negative net margin of 715.77%. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 76.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that IonQ will post -1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at IonQ

In other IonQ news, CTO Jungsang Kim sold 10,220 shares of IonQ stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $104,244.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 6,619,941 shares in the company, valued at $67,523,398.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CTO Jungsang Kim sold 10,220 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $104,244.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 6,619,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,523,398.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thomas G. Kramer sold 19,672 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $200,654.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 954,224 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,733,084.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 86,556 shares of company stock valued at $882,871. 13.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IONQ. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of IonQ by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 4,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in IonQ by 32.9% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in IonQ by 4.0% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 66,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $822,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in IonQ by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 22,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,459 shares during the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.