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

Shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) rose 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. Approximately 15,080,684 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 46% from the average daily volume of 10,337,357 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.76.

IONQ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. DA Davidson initiated coverage on IonQ in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Benchmark increased their target price on IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 13,106 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total transaction of $389,641.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 414,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,319,011.99. This trade represents a 3.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 21,337 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total value of $634,349.01. Following the sale, the executive now owns 571,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,985,373.33. This represents a 3.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 110,223 shares of company stock worth $2,286,983 over the last quarter. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in IonQ by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,420,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,640,000 after buying an additional 199,360 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in IonQ by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,260,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,240,000 after buying an additional 75,596 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in IonQ by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,614,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,107,000 after buying an additional 135,851 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in IonQ by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 916,536 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,443,000 after buying an additional 131,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in IonQ by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 612,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,354,000 after buying an additional 41,125 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

IonQ Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.61 billion, a PE ratio of -54.84 and a beta of 2.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.03.

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

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.