IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $31.80, but opened at $34.30. IonQ shares last traded at $34.67, with a volume of 2,384,646 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

IonQ Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $15.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.34. The stock has a market cap of $6.71 billion, a PE ratio of -40.11 and a beta of 1.89.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at IonQ

In related news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.72, for a total value of $98,184.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 648,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,954,953.76. The trade was a 1.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331 in the last 90 days. 11.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONQ. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of IonQ during the third quarter valued at about $91,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 4.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,420,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,640,000 after acquiring an additional 199,360 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of IonQ during the third quarter valued at about $1,631,000. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of IonQ during the third quarter valued at about $1,865,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management raised its stake in IonQ by 10.0% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 154,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,352,000 after buying an additional 14,072 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.