DA Davidson Initiates Coverage on IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

DA Davidson began coverage on shares of IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) in a report published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on IONQ. Benchmark upped their price target on IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Craig Hallum upped their target price on IonQ from $15.00 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 shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, IonQ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.60.

IonQ Trading Up 17.6 %

Shares of IonQ stock opened at $44.42 on Thursday. IonQ has a 1 year low of $6.22 and a 1 year high of $47.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.03. The company has a market cap of $9.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.84 and a beta of 2.49.

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 the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $10.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.22) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 102.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that IonQ will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at IonQ

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,159 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.72, for a total transaction of $98,184.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 648,783 shares in the company, valued at $6,954,953.76. This represents a 1.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Thomas G. Kramer sold 9,780 shares of IonQ stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.72, for a total value of $290,661.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 926,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,524,108.08. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,223 shares of company stock valued at $2,286,983. Corporate insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in IonQ by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 916,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,443,000 after acquiring an additional 131,439 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of IonQ by 40.6% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,000 after buying an additional 7,744 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of IonQ by 13.5% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 295,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,080,000 after buying an additional 35,158 shares during the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in IonQ by 99.5% during the 2nd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 121,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $852,000 after buying an additional 60,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in IonQ by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 49,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.42% of the company’s stock.

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.