Stock Traders Buy High Volume of IonQ Call Options (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 47,277 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 591% compared to the average daily volume of 6,842 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on IONQ shares. Benchmark decreased their price target on shares of IonQ from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered 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. Finally, Craig Hallum cut their price target on IonQ from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.00.

IonQ Stock Up 20.5 %

IONQ stock opened at $9.71 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $7.51 and a 200-day moving average of $8.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of -11.70 and a beta of 2.04. IonQ has a 12-month low of $6.22 and a 12-month high of $16.60.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $11.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 106.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that IonQ will post -0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morgens Waterfall Vintiadis & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IonQ during the 4th quarter valued at $1,858,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of IonQ in the fourth quarter worth about $26,430,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of IonQ by 4.0% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new position in IonQ during the first quarter valued at approximately $185,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in IonQ by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,906,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,864,000 after acquiring an additional 193,924 shares during the period. 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.