Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 16,494 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 44% compared to the typical daily volume of 11,419 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IONQ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of IonQ in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on IonQ from $13.00 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.50.

IonQ Trading Up 4.6 %

Shares of NYSE:IONQ traded up $0.44 on Thursday, reaching $9.99. The company had a trading volume of 5,618,846 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,076,618. IonQ has a 52-week low of $4.80 and a 52-week high of $21.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of -12.69 and a beta of 2.16.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 28.27% and a negative net margin of 715.77%. The business had revenue of $6.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IonQ will post -1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at IonQ

In other news, CTO Jungsang Kim sold 10,220 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $104,244.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 6,619,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,523,398.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 29,452 shares of the company’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 owns 451,233 shares in the company, valued at $4,602,576.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Jungsang Kim sold 10,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.20, for a total value of $104,244.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 6,619,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,523,398.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 86,556 shares of company stock worth $882,871. 13.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in IONQ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in IonQ by 11.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,291,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,220,000 after acquiring an additional 127,499 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in IonQ by 5.9% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 28,002 shares of the company’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in IonQ during the second quarter worth $28,845,000. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in IonQ by 53.1% during the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 48,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $596,000 after purchasing an additional 16,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of IonQ by 282.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 453,221 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,744,000 after acquiring an additional 334,856 shares during the period. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.