IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Trading 1.9% Higher – Still a Buy?

Shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) traded up 1.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $31.97 and last traded at $29.40. 18,332,854 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 108% from the average session volume of 8,816,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.86.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IONQ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Craig Hallum lifted their target price on IonQ from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Benchmark lifted 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.

IonQ Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.30 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.75, for a total value of $406,031.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 592,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. The trade was a 3.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331. Corporate insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in IonQ by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,824,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,062,000 after buying an additional 918,265 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel acquired a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter worth about $5,036,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in IonQ by 27.3% in 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 period. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter worth about $3,749,000. Finally, Main Management ETF Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter worth about $1,865,000. 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.