IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Stock Price Up 7.8% – Should You Buy?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) shares shot up 7.8% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $16.14 and last traded at $15.89. 8,641,858 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 33% from the average session volume of 6,489,802 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.74.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on IONQ. Craig Hallum decreased 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 price target on shares of IonQ in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, 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 research note on Monday, August 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, IonQ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.00.

IonQ Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $9.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $8.33. The stock has a market cap of $3.59 billion, a PE ratio of -20.43 and a beta of 2.05.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.66 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.16) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 106.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 12,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the executive now directly owns 615,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,676,178.76. 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 the SEC website. Insiders sold 43,125 shares of company stock worth $566,300 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of IonQ by 4,824.2% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 6,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 6,368 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in IonQ in the 3rd quarter worth about $72,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in IonQ in the 2nd quarter worth about $67,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter valued at about $89,000. Finally, Mosley Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $81,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

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.