IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Trading 21.6% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s stock price was up 21.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Craig Hallum raised their price target on the stock from $15.00 to $22.00. Craig Hallum currently has a buy rating on the stock. IonQ traded as high as $20.20 and last traded at $20.00. Approximately 22,410,355 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 208% from the average daily volume of 7,268,965 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.45.

IONQ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Benchmark upped their price objective on IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.75, for a total transaction of $406,031.25. Following the sale, the executive now owns 592,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 66,000 shares of company stock worth $972,331. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in IonQ by 5.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,824,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,062,000 after acquiring an additional 918,265 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in IonQ by 27.3% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,654,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,661,000 after purchasing an additional 569,906 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of IonQ by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 916,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,443,000 after buying an additional 131,439 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel purchased a new position in IonQ in the third quarter worth $5,036,000. Finally, Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,749,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

IonQ Trading Up 34.3 %

The stock’s fifty day moving average is $10.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.79. The company has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a PE ratio of -27.78 and a beta of 1.89.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $12.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.56 million. IonQ had a negative net margin of 525.13% and a negative return on equity of 34.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 102.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.22) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.84 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.