IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Up 16.4% After Analyst Upgrade

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s share price traded up 16.4% on Friday after Craig Hallum raised their price target on the stock from $22.00 to $45.00. Craig Hallum currently has a buy rating on the stock. IonQ traded as high as $44.09 and last traded at $43.94. 15,080,684 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 46% from the average session volume of 10,337,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.76.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark boosted their target price on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on shares of IonQ in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.60.

Insider Transactions at IonQ

In other IonQ news, CFO Thomas G. Kramer sold 9,780 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.72, for a total transaction of $290,661.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 926,114 shares in the company, valued at $27,524,108.08. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.72, for a total value of $98,184.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 648,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,954,953.76. This trade represents a 1.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 110,223 shares of company stock worth $2,286,983. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter valued at approximately $91,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of IonQ by 4.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,420,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,640,000 after purchasing an additional 199,360 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in IonQ during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,631,000. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth $1,865,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management increased its stake in IonQ by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 154,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,352,000 after buying an additional 14,072 shares during the period. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IonQ Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.99. The stock has a market cap of $9.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.84 and a beta of 2.49.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.02). IonQ had a negative return on equity of 36.82% and a negative net margin of 457.85%. The business had revenue of $12.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.56 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.22) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 102.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.