IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Down 13.2% – Time to Sell?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s share price traded down 13.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $55.84 and last traded at $56.9870. 31,539,456 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 18% from the average session volume of 26,692,986 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of IonQ from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of IonQ from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $85.00 price objective on shares of IonQ in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of IonQ from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of IonQ in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.63.

IonQ Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $21.27 billion, a PE ratio of -203.53 and a beta of 3.18. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.19.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.34) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by ($0.08). IonQ had a net margin of 174.88% and a negative return on equity of 23.20%. The firm had revenue of $64.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.75 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.14) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 754.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -2.26 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at IonQ

In other IonQ news, insider Robert T. Cardillo sold 3,773 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.90, for a total value of $188,272.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,984,353.30. This represents a 2.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John W. Raymond sold 2,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.34, for a total transaction of $93,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 83,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,799,326.42. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in IonQ by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,774,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,560,343,000 after purchasing an additional 5,420,037 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in IonQ during the 4th quarter valued at about $199,753,000. Marex Group plc increased its stake in IonQ by 419.1% during the 4th quarter. Marex Group plc now owns 4,083,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,225,000 after purchasing an additional 3,296,866 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in IonQ by 42.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,962,789 shares of the company’s stock valued at $402,160,000 after purchasing an additional 2,663,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clear Street Group Inc. increased its stake in IonQ by 219.6% during the 4th quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. now owns 3,195,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,196,017 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by 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. 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.