Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 95.65% from the company’s current price.

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, IonQ presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.50.

IonQ Stock Performance

IONQ stock traded up $0.42 during trading on Thursday, hitting $9.20. 6,295,521 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,541,065. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.86. IonQ has a 52 week low of $6.00 and a 52 week high of $21.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.79 and a beta of 2.17.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.07. The company had revenue of $7.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.08 million. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 28.27% and a negative net margin of 715.77%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 76.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.14) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that IonQ will post -1.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 27,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total transaction of $277,562.40. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 697,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,115,999.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other IonQ news, CTO Jungsang Kim sold 10,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $104,244.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 6,619,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,523,398.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 27,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $277,562.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 697,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,115,999.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 86,556 shares of company stock worth $882,871 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in IonQ by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 4,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in IonQ by 32.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,038 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. raised its position in shares of IonQ by 61.2% in the third quarter. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. now owns 4,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 1,724 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of IonQ by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 1,655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QCM Cayman Ltd. acquired a new position in IonQ during the first quarter worth about $120,000. 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.