IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Given New $18.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) had its price objective hoisted by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $13.00 to $18.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 9.42% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on IONQ. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of IonQ from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Craig Hallum dropped their price target on shares of IonQ from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th.

IonQ Stock Performance

Shares of IONQ stock opened at $16.45 on Thursday. IonQ has a one year low of $6.22 and a one year high of $18.20. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.49 and its 200 day moving average is $8.79. The company has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.82 and a beta of 1.89.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.04. IonQ had a negative net margin of 525.13% and a negative return on equity of 34.02%. The company had revenue of $11.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.16) EPS. IonQ’s revenue for the quarter was up 106.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that IonQ will post -0.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.72, for a total transaction of $115,735.00. Following the sale, the executive now owns 638,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,488,001.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331 in the last 90 days. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONQ. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of IonQ by 1,598.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,084,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,825,000 after buying an additional 1,961,909 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in IonQ by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,824,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,062,000 after acquiring an additional 918,265 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new stake in IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,036,000. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,749,000. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC bought a new stake in IonQ during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,410,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

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.