Analyzing Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN) & IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) and Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for IonQ and Canaan, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IonQ	1	4	9	0	2.57
Canaan	1	0	6	0	2.71

IonQ currently has a consensus price target of $69.92, indicating a potential upside of 72.76%. Canaan has a consensus price target of $2.01, indicating a potential upside of 363.93%. Given Canaan’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Canaan is more favorable than IonQ.

Risk and Volatility

IonQ has a beta of 3.28, suggesting that its share price is 228% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canaan has a beta of 2.62, suggesting that its share price is 162% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares IonQ and Canaan’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IonQ	-553.27%	-22.29%	-13.20%
Canaan	-41.71%	-55.84%	-35.47%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.4% of IonQ shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.1% of Canaan shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of IonQ shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Canaan shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares IonQ and Canaan”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IonQ	$130.02 million	118.59	-$510.38 million	($4.66)	-8.68
Canaan	$529.73 million	0.59	-$210.27 million	($0.34)	-1.27

Canaan has higher revenue and earnings than IonQ. IonQ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Canaan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Canaan beats IonQ on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It also provides contracts associated with the design, development, and construction of specialized quantum computing hardware systems; maintenance and support services; and consulting services related to co-developing algorithms on quantum computing systems. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in College Park, Maryland.

About Canaan

Canaan Inc. engages in the research, design, and sale of integrated circuit (IC) final mining equipment products by integrating IC products for bitcoin mining and related components in the People's Republic of China. It is also involved in the assembly and distribution of mining equipment and spare parts. The company has operations in the United States, Australia, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Canada, Mainland China, Thailand, Sweden, and internationally. Canaan Inc. was founded in 2013 and is based in Singapore.