IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Up 14% – Here’s What Happened

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was up 14% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $26.52 and last traded at $26.22. Approximately 17,090,359 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 113% from the average daily volume of 8,018,491 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.01.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on IONQ shares. Benchmark increased their target price on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Craig Hallum lifted their price target on IonQ from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th.

IonQ Stock Down 2.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $12.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.67 and a beta of 1.89.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by ($0.02). IonQ had a negative return on equity of 36.82% and a negative net margin of 457.85%. The company had revenue of $12.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.56 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.22) earnings per share. IonQ’s revenue for the quarter was up 102.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at IonQ

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.75, for a total value of $406,031.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 592,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. The trade was a 3.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 66,000 shares of company stock worth $972,331 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $188,062,000 after purchasing an additional 918,265 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new position in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth about $5,036,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of IonQ by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,654,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,661,000 after acquiring an additional 569,906 shares in the last quarter. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in IonQ in the third quarter valued at about $3,749,000. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC acquired a new position in IonQ in the first quarter worth about $2,410,000. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.