IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Stock Price Down 8.7% After Insider Selling

Shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) fell 8.7% during trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $14.76 and last traded at $15.40. 10,293,733 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 47% from the average session volume of 6,983,056 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.87.

Specifically, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive now directly owns 592,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.72, for a total transaction of $188,640.00. Following the sale, the executive now owns 615,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,676,178.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IONQ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Craig Hallum lowered their target price on IonQ from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of IonQ from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on shares of IonQ in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, 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.

IonQ Trading Down 10.6 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.23 billion, a PE ratio of -19.49 and a beta of 2.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $9.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.52.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in IonQ by 1,598.7% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,084,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,825,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,909 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of IonQ by 5.1% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel purchased a new position in shares of IonQ in the 3rd quarter valued at $5,036,000. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,749,000. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC purchased a new stake in IonQ during the 1st quarter worth $2,410,000. 41.42% of the stock is 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.