IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) shares gapped up before the market opened 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 changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on IONQ shares. Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of IonQ from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of IonQ from $11.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

IonQ Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $16.12 and a 200-day moving average of $10.64.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) EPS 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 firm had revenue of $12.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.22) EPS. IonQ’s quarterly revenue was up 102.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 9,875 shares of IonQ stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.72, for a total transaction of $115,735.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 638,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,488,001.76. The trade was a 1.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,000 shares of company stock valued at $972,331. Company insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of IonQ by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,824,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,062,000 after purchasing an additional 918,265 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel purchased a new stake in shares of IonQ in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,036,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of IonQ by 27.3% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,654,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,661,000 after buying an additional 569,906 shares in the last quarter. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,749,000. Finally, Main Management ETF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of IonQ during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,865,000. Hedge funds and other 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.