IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $54.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 80.43% from the stock’s current price.

IONQ has been the topic of several other reports. DA Davidson upgraded shares of IonQ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of IonQ from $16.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum raised their target price on shares of IonQ from $22.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.20.

IonQ Price Performance

IONQ stock opened at $29.93 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.48 billion, a PE ratio of -36.95 and a beta of 2.41. IonQ has a 12 month low of $6.22 and a 12 month high of $54.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IonQ news, CFO Thomas G. Kramer sold 9,780 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.72, for a total transaction of $290,661.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 926,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,524,108.08. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 21,337 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total transaction of $634,349.01. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 571,321 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,985,373.33. This represents a 3.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 44,223 shares of company stock valued at $1,314,652 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IonQ

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,374,125 shares of the company’s stock valued at $892,797,000 after acquiring an additional 125,144 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,466,094 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,593,000 after acquiring an additional 45,942 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,260,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,240,000 after acquiring an additional 75,596 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 1,310.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,468,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,095,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,231 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,934,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,809,000 after acquiring an additional 216,752 shares during the period. 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.