B. Riley Begins Coverage on IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

Key Points

• IonQ has been upgraded to a strong-buy rating by B. Riley, indicating increased analyst confidence in the stock's performance.
• The company's stock price showed a trading increase of 1.6% on the day of the rating upgrade, currently priced at $41.41.
• Despite reporting a significant revenue growth of 81.6% year-over-year, IonQ's quarterly earnings missed analyst expectations with an EPS of ($0.70).

Investment analysts at B. Riley began coverage on shares of IonQ (NYSE:IONQ - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set a "buy" rating and a $61.00 price target on the stock. B. Riley's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 42.69% from the company's current price.

IONQ has been the topic of several other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on IonQ in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. They set an "overweight" rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities assumed coverage on IonQ in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. They set a "buy" rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on IonQ in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Benchmark lifted their target price on IonQ from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on IonQ from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, IonQ presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.78.

IonQ Stock Performance

Shares of IONQ stock traded down $0.55 on Tuesday, reaching $42.75. The stock had a trading volume of 11,478,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,126,410. The stock has a market cap of $12.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.27 and a beta of 2.54. IonQ has a 1 year low of $6.54 and a 1 year high of $54.74. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.34.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.70) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.57). The firm had revenue of $20.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.23 million. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 67.11% and a negative net margin of 885.21%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 81.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.18) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that IonQ will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 45,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.18, for a total transaction of $2,078,100.00. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 552,592 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,518,698.56. This trade represents a 7.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kathryn K. Chou sold 6,789 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.14, for a total value of $292,877.46. Following the sale, the director directly owned 60,839 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,624,594.46. This represents a 10.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,209,626 shares of company stock valued at $361,253,723 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 5.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of IonQ by 15.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,767,446 shares of the company's stock worth $1,064,257,000 after purchasing an additional 3,269,482 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of IonQ by 15.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,338,456 shares of the company's stock worth $229,422,000 after purchasing an additional 705,301 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of IonQ by 15.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,255,681 shares of the company's stock worth $225,837,000 after purchasing an additional 688,663 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of IonQ by 648.5% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,674,348 shares of the company's stock worth $114,917,000 after purchasing an additional 2,317,058 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of IonQ in the second quarter worth about $114,767,000. 41.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.