IonQ Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:IONQ)

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 199,216 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 130% compared to the typical volume of 86,632 put options.

Insider Activity

In other IonQ news, insider Robert T. Cardillo sold 3,773 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.90, for a total value of $188,272.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 139,967 shares in the company, valued at $6,984,353.30. This represents a 2.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Gabrielle B. Toledano sold 2,757 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.01, for a total value of $151,662.57. Following the sale, the director directly owned 11,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $613,581.54. The trade was a 19.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 13,102 shares of company stock worth $701,489 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IonQ

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IONQ. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in IonQ by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,774,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,560,343,000 after acquiring an additional 5,420,037 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of IonQ during the 4th quarter worth $199,753,000. Marex Group plc grew its holdings in shares of IonQ by 419.1% during the 4th quarter. Marex Group plc now owns 4,083,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,225,000 after purchasing an additional 3,296,866 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of IonQ by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,962,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $402,160,000 after purchasing an additional 2,663,230 shares during the period. Finally, Clear Street Group Inc. raised its stake in IonQ by 219.6% in the fourth quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. now owns 3,195,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,196,017 shares in the last quarter. 41.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IONQ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $85.00 target price on IonQ in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded IonQ from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of IonQ in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on IonQ from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of IonQ from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.88.

IonQ Price Performance

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

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