IonQ rises on wave of Wall Street love following its Analyst Day event

IonQ’s Analyst Day event at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday was a major catalyst for the quantum computing space.

Its stock spiked 18% on the final session of last week, leading a charge that saw peers Rigetti Computing up 14%, D-Wave Quantum gain 7.5%, and Quantum Computing rise 7%.

Analysts obviously liked what they heard. Shares are up again in early trading on Monday, with IonQ’s price target hiked:

• to $80 from $60 by Needham,

• to $75 from $61 by B Riley Securities, and

• to $60 from $45 by Cantor Fitzgerald.

“IonQ is the only company in the industry to have quantum computing, quantum networking and quantum security under one roof,” wrote Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton, who has a “buy” rating on the shares. “Management highlighted the US Department of War recently stated ‘Cryptographically relevant quantum computers may be possible in as soon as three years.’ This fact is driving growing interest in the company’s QKD [quantum key distribution] systems.”

The company also announced on Friday that it received regulatory approval for its purchase of British startup Oxford Ionics and expects the deal to close shortly.

“We believe Oxford Ionic’s Electronic Qubit Control is a highly differentiated technology that not only enables significantly greater scalability but also enables higher fidelity and faster gate speeds,” Bolton added.