IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Trading 3.6% Higher – What’s Next?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) traded up 3.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $62.97 and last traded at $62.3260. 19,043,435 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 24,512,725 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.17.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of IonQ from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of IonQ in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of IonQ in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of IonQ in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of IonQ from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.33.

IonQ Trading Up 3.6%

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.01 and a beta of 2.60.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.70) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.57). IonQ had a negative net margin of 885.21% and a negative return on equity of 67.11%. The firm had revenue of $20.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.23 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.18) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 81.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at IonQ

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 19,976 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.40, for a total transaction of $886,934.40. Following the transaction, the executive directly owned 532,616 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,648,150.40. This trade represents a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Robert T. Cardillo sold 8,773 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.52, for a total transaction of $443,211.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 37,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,891,266.72. This represents a 18.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 131,398 shares of company stock worth $5,665,690 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of IonQ by 15.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,767,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,064,257,000 after purchasing an additional 3,269,482 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in IonQ by 15.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,338,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,422,000 after purchasing an additional 705,301 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of IonQ by 15.1% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,255,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,837,000 after buying an additional 688,663 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of IonQ by 648.5% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,674,348 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,917,000 after buying an additional 2,317,058 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 2nd quarter valued at about $114,767,000. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.