Traders Buy Large Volume of IonQ Put Options (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors acquired 199,216 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 130% compared to the average volume of 86,632 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IONQ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of IonQ in a report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $48.50 price objective on IonQ in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $85.00 price objective on IonQ in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on IonQ from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded IonQ from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.88.

Insider Activity

In other IonQ news, insider John W. Raymond sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.01, for a total value of $209,863.15. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 80,148 shares in the company, valued at $4,408,941.48. The trade was a 4.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathryn K. Chou sold 2,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.02, for a total transaction of $151,690.14. Following the sale, the director directly owned 62,608 shares in the company, valued at $3,444,692.16. This represents a 4.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 13,102 shares of company stock worth $701,489 in the last quarter. 0.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of IonQ

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in IonQ by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,774,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,560,343,000 after purchasing an additional 5,420,037 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of IonQ by 42.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,962,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $402,160,000 after buying an additional 2,663,230 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of IonQ by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,074,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,624,000 after buying an additional 1,452,463 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of IonQ during the fourth quarter worth approximately $199,753,000. Finally, Marex Group plc lifted its holdings in IonQ by 419.1% in the fourth quarter. Marex Group plc now owns 4,083,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,225,000 after buying an additional 3,296,866 shares during the period. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IonQ Trading Down 6.6%

Shares of IONQ traded down $2.48 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $35.02. 24,293,947 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,945,674. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -125.09 and a beta of 3.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $55.20 and a 200 day moving average of $44.69. IonQ has a one year low of $25.89 and a one year high of $84.64.

IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.34) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $64.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.75 million. IonQ had a negative return on equity of 23.20% and a net margin of 174.88%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 754.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that IonQ will post -2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

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. 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.