IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Trading Down 6.7% – Should You Sell?

Shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) dropped 6.7% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $47.71 and last traded at $47.2790. Approximately 11,797,854 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 32% from the average daily volume of 17,375,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.66.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on IONQ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on IonQ in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. Wedbush began coverage on IonQ in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price for the company. Mizuho initiated coverage on IonQ in a report on Thursday, December 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $90.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of IonQ from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of IonQ from $32.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, IonQ currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.91.

IonQ Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $48.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.41. The firm has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.03 and a beta of 2.63.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported ($3.58) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by ($3.14). The business had revenue of $39.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.99 million. IonQ had a negative net margin of 1,836.32% and a negative return on equity of 127.06%. IonQ’s revenue was up 221.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.24) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.89, for a total transaction of $4,689,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive directly owned 432,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,285,364.24. This represents a 18.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathryn K. Chou sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.40, for a total transaction of $1,028,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 60,839 shares in the company, valued at $3,127,124.60. This represents a 24.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 125,000 shares of company stock worth $5,992,000. 5.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in IonQ by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,354,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,805,314,000 after buying an additional 4,587,260 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 19.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,299,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,423,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043,878 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in IonQ by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,338,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,422,000 after buying an additional 705,301 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of IonQ by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,008,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $184,992,000 after buying an additional 333,653 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of IonQ by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,737,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,327,000 after purchasing an additional 636,482 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. It also provides contracts associated with the design, development, and construction of specialized quantum computing hardware systems; maintenance and support services; and consulting services related to co-developing algorithms on quantum computing systems.