IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) Shares Acquired by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) by 29.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,938 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,288 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in IonQ were worth $166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of IONQ. Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of IonQ by 50.7% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 185,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,620,000 after purchasing an additional 62,362 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in IonQ during the third quarter worth $479,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in IonQ by 34.2% during the third 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. FMR LLC grew its position in IonQ by 7.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 612,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,354,000 after buying an additional 41,125 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in IonQ by 15.6% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 94,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $827,000 after buying an additional 12,788 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at IonQ

In other news, CRO Rima Alameddine sold 22,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.75, for a total transaction of $406,031.25. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 592,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,519,679.50. The trade was a 3.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Peter Hume Chapman sold 13,106 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total transaction of $389,641.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 110,223 shares of company stock worth $2,286,983. Insiders own 11.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on IonQ from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on IonQ from $22.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Benchmark increased their target price on IonQ from $12.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of IonQ in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.60.

IonQ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:IONQ opened at $44.58 on Thursday. IonQ, Inc. has a 1 year low of $6.22 and a 1 year high of $47.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.65 billion, a PE ratio of -55.04 and a beta of 2.49. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $27.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.78.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $12.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.56 million. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 36.82% and a negative net margin of 457.85%. IonQ’s quarterly revenue was up 102.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.22) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that IonQ, Inc. will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

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.