IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Gap Down to $7.37

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $7.37, but opened at $7.21. IonQ shares last traded at $7.25, with a volume of 654,202 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on IONQ. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on IonQ from $13.00 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of IonQ in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.50.

IonQ Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.09 and a beta of 2.14. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.40.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.11 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 million. IonQ had a negative net margin of 715.77% and a negative return on equity of 28.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that IonQ, Inc. will post -1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IonQ news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 27,212 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $277,562.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 697,647 shares in the company, valued at $7,115,999.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 27,212 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total transaction of $277,562.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 697,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,115,999.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 29,452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total transaction of $300,410.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 451,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,602,576.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 86,556 shares of company stock valued at $882,871. 13.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in IonQ by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,906,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,864,000 after purchasing an additional 193,924 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of IonQ by 65.3% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 628,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,788,000 after purchasing an additional 248,245 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of IonQ during the fourth quarter worth $554,000. Prospect Financial Services LLC bought a new position in IonQ during the fourth quarter worth $124,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in IonQ by 747.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 729,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,046,000 after buying an additional 643,877 shares during the period. 41.42% of the stock is currently 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.