IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 42,140,000 shares, a growth of 6.4% from the September 30th total of 39,620,000 shares. Approximately 22.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 8,080,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Craig Hallum cut their target price on IonQ from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark cut their price objective on IonQ from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 target price on shares of IonQ in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,875 shares of IonQ stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.72, for a total value of $115,735.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 638,908 shares in the company, valued at $7,488,001.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,000 shares of company stock worth $972,331. Insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

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

IonQ Stock Down 10.8 %

NYSE IONQ traded down $1.83 during trading on Thursday, hitting $15.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 22,443,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,040,066. IonQ has a 52 week low of $6.22 and a 52 week high of $18.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.04 and a beta of 2.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $9.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.57.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $11.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.16) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 106.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that IonQ will post -0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

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.