IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Stock Price Down 3.5% – Time to Sell?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s share price traded down 3.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $44.50 and last traded at $46.56. 13,041,370 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 22% from the average session volume of 10,646,715 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.24.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of IonQ in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Craig Hallum lifted their target price on IonQ from $22.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.60.

IonQ Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.15 and a beta of 2.49. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.04 and its 200-day moving average is $15.32.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). IonQ had a negative return on equity of 36.82% and a negative net margin of 457.85%. The firm had revenue of $12.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.22) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 102.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 13,106 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 $12,319,011.99. The trade was a 3.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive now owns 648,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,954,953.76. This represents a 1.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 110,223 shares of company stock valued at $2,286,983 in the last 90 days. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,036,000. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of IonQ in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,749,000. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,865,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of IonQ by 4.7% in 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. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth $1,631,000. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.