IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Stock Price Down 9% – Time to Sell?

Shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) fell 9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $15.73 and last traded at $16.20. 15,327,074 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 125% from the average session volume of 6,806,028 shares. The stock had previously closed at $17.81.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on IONQ shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th. Benchmark lowered their price objective 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. Craig Hallum lowered their target price 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of IonQ in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IonQ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

IonQ Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.54 and a beta of 2.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $9.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.40.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.72, for a total value of $98,184.48. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 648,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,954,953.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 43,125 shares of company stock worth $566,300 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONQ. Carnegie Investment Counsel purchased a new position in IonQ in the 3rd quarter worth about $5,036,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of IonQ by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter worth about $152,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 1st quarter valued at about $185,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in IonQ by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,906,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,864,000 after buying an additional 193,924 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.