IonQ's Quantum Adoption Accelerates, Analysts Say Anticipated Hardware Sales & Broader Industry Interest Evident

Benchmark analyst David Williams maintained IonQ Inc IONQ with a Buy and raised the price target from $17 to $20.

IONQ delivered another solid quarterly performance of raised bookings guidance, an accelerating pipeline of interest in hardware, and continued momentum in quantum adoption trends. 

The key takeaway was the increased enthusiasm for additional hardware sales, which the company anticipates “a number of new machines” to be purchased over the next 18 months. 

Customer demand is broad-based across industries and uses cases with various compute requirements, from low (qubit) end networking applications to advanced 64AQ+, such as the recently announced Basel Quantum deal. 

The top line beat expectations on the timing of milestone-based payments, which pulled revenue forward with the full-year outlook slightly revised upward (+$100k). 

Williams continues to view the company as uniquely differentiated from peers, with a healthy balance sheet, multiple revenue growth vectors, and solid execution, consistently hitting milestones ahead of schedule. Adoption is undoubtedly accelerating as the industry transitions from an experimental platform to a value-creating enterprise-class solution, and he thinks quantum machine sales will remain a catalyst for share appreciation. 

Quantum adoption is accelerating, transitioning from experimental to enterprise-class solution, making quantum machine sales a share appreciation catalyst.

Annual bookings adjusted higher post-Quantum Basel deal, expected in the range of $49 million - $56 million.

Recent Basel deal includes hardware sale for a next-gen 35AQ and anticipated 64AQ system, showcasing a confident ecosystem partner commitment.

Expanded access to the Forte system offers customers engagement with the 29AQ system.

Customer interest in quantum hardware surpasses expectations, leading to discussions for multiple new system sales and various use cases.

Williams estimates FY23 revenue of $19.1 million, $40.1 million in FY24 (prior $43 million), and $118.0 million in FY25 (prior $108.7 million).

Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari maintained IonQ with a Neutral and raised the price target from $9 to $14.

Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Fessler maintained IonQ with an Equal-Weight and raised the price target from $7 to $16.

Price Action: IONQ shares traded lower by 5.86% at $14.80 on the last check Monday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.