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

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $54.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 119.54% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on IonQ from $16.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. DA Davidson upgraded IonQ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their price target on IonQ from $22.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.80.

IonQ Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:IONQ opened at $24.60 on Thursday. IonQ has a 12-month low of $6.22 and a 12-month high of $54.74. The firm has a market cap of $5.32 billion, a PE ratio of -30.37 and a beta of 2.41. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at IonQ

In other news, CFO Thomas G. Kramer sold 9,780 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.72, for a total transaction of $290,661.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 926,114 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,524,108.08. This represents a 1.04 % 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, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 13,106 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total value of $389,641.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 414,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,319,011.99. This represents a 3.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 44,223 shares of company stock worth $1,314,652 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in IonQ by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,614,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,107,000 after purchasing an additional 135,851 shares during the last quarter. Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of IonQ during the third quarter worth approximately $3,749,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings in IonQ by 34.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 437,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,825,000 after buying an additional 111,435 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in IonQ in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,631,000. Finally, Prospera Financial Services Inc raised its stake in IonQ by 196.1% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 38,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 25,502 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.