IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Stock Price Up 2.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s share price rose 2.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Benchmark raised their price target on the stock from $40.00 to $50.00. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. IonQ traded as high as $44.05 and last traded at $41.12. Approximately 16,957,084 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 7% from the average daily volume of 18,215,716 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.06.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on IONQ. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on IonQ from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on IonQ from $50.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on IonQ from $54.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, IonQ presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Masi Niccolo De sold 9,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.23, for a total value of $391,894.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 711,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,067,211.01. This trade represents a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 5.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in IonQ by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,497,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $474,460,000 after acquiring an additional 123,839 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in IonQ by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,466,094 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,593,000 after acquiring an additional 45,942 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in IonQ by 1,310.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,468,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,095,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,231 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in IonQ by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,934,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,809,000 after acquiring an additional 216,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in IonQ by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,645,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,740,000 after acquiring an additional 31,638 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

IonQ Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.22. The stock has a market cap of $8.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -49.10 and a beta of 2.59.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.14. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 36.82% and a negative net margin of 457.85%. The firm had revenue of $7.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.51 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.19) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

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.