IonQ Stock: Skyrocketing Revenues Mask a Hidden Risk, Warns Top Investor
Quantum computing darling IonQ is posting revenue numbers that would make a tech CFO blush—but not everything is spinning in superposition.
The Growth Illusion
While bookings surge, insiders whisper about deferred revenue accounting tricks that'd make a crypto exchange proud. The 'quantum winter' narrative gets thawed with press releases, not actual qubits.
Wall Street's Quantum Gambit
Analysts chase the sizzle while ignoring the steak—typical for a market that still thinks 'decoherence' is a management retreat tactic. The company burns cash faster than a Bitcoin miner in Venezuela.
Bullish? Maybe. But remember: in quantum investing, your portfolio can be up and down simultaneously until you check your brokerage account.
Meet Your ETF AI Analyst
- Discover how TipRanks' ETF AI Analyst can help you make smarter investment decisions
- Explore ETFs TipRanks' users love and see what insights the ETF AI Analyst reveals about the ones you follow.
The company also announced advances on the technology front, demonstrating a record 99.99% two-qubit gate performance. The company has been actively pursuing a number of acquisitions left and right, including the recent purchase of Oxford Ionics for over $1 billion in September.
All told, IONQ has seen its share price shoot upward by almost 600% since the end of August 2024, riding the surging quantum computing wave to incredible heights.
However, top investor Adam Spatacco can’t bring himself to join the party, pointing out that much of the revenue growth isn’t organic.
“IonQ is inheriting the clients of competing quantum businesses, rather than winning over new customers of its own through savvy sales and marketing tactics or competitive technological advantages,” explains the 5-star investor, who is among the top 2% of stock pros covered by TipRanks.
Beyond the concerns over IonQ’s ability to generate value internally, Spatacco worries that all this acquisition activity will cause the company to burn through its $3.5 billion in cash “relatively quickly.”
The investor also notes that much of IonQ’s revenues are heavily concentrated among a small number of customers, with three clients representing 61% of the total revenue. This exposes the company to volatility if any of these customers elected to end their engagement with IonQ.
Hovering over the investor’s specific problem with IonQ’s “artificially inflated” revenues is the larger issue over the commercial potential of quantum computing. Spatacco points out that the technology has yet to widely prove its commercial relevance.
“While the idea of quantum computing is interesting, the technology itself has yet to deliver commercial application at scale – yet another reason demand for IonQ’s products remains fairly muted,” emphasizes Spatacco.
As for IONQ’s increasing share price, Spatacco chalks that up to “day traders and retail investors chasing what could be a pipe dream” – not exactly a ringing endorsement. In other words, Spatacco urges investors to look elsewhere.
“Investors seeking durable opportunities to buy and hold for the long term are likely better off passing on IonQ in favor of more established blue-chip companies in the AI realm,” concludes Spatacco. (To watch Adam Spatacco’s track record, click here)
Wall Street, however, holds a more bullish view. With 7 Buys and 2 Holds, IONQ enjoys a Strong Buy consensus rating. Its 12-month average price target of $76.86 implies gains north of 50%. (See)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
