IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Up 4.2% – Still a Buy?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s stock price shot up 4.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $36.75 and last traded at $35.69. 11,801,876 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 22% from the average session volume of 9,645,742 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.24.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IONQ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on IonQ from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their target price on IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th.

IonQ Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $20.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.25. The company has a market cap of $7.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -42.88 and a beta of 2.47.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last released 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). IonQ had a negative net margin of 457.85% and a negative return on equity of 36.82%. The company had revenue of $12.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.56 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.22) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 102.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.75, for a total value of $406,031.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 592,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. This represents a 3.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331. Insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of IonQ by 4,824.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 6,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 6,368 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 2nd quarter worth $67,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 3rd quarter worth $72,000. Mosley Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 2nd quarter worth $81,000. Finally, Xponance Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the 2nd quarter worth $88,000. Institutional investors own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

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.