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IONQ Stock Before Q3 Earnings: Should You Buy Now or Wait?
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Key Takeaways
IonQ shares jumped 53.3% in Q3, driven by advances in quantum networking and key acquisitions.
Q3 revenues are expected at $27.02M, up 117.9% year over year, with EPS loss unchanged at 24 cents.
Rising R&D and operating costs could weigh on IonQ's profits despite its aggressive global expansion.
IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) is expected to release its third-quarter 2025 results soon amid surging investor optimism influenced by rapid strategic execution. The company’s stock climbed an impressive 53.3% during the July-September quarter, fueled by bold moves in quantum networking, space-based communications and key acquisitions.
On the heels of a strong second-quarter performance, IonQ is likely to have continued the expansion of its quantum footprint globally throughout the third quarter, bolstered by its accelerated technology roadmap, strategic acquisitions to advance quantum networking and computing capacities and deepening partnerships with key international research and commercial organizations.
IonQ reported earnings beat in one of the trailing four quarters and missed on the other three occasions, the average negative surprise being 166.2%.
Let's delve deeper.
July-September Share Performance of IONQ
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Are Estimates Poised for IonQ?
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter EPS has remained unchanged at a loss of 24 cents per share over the past 30 days. The estimated figure indicates no change from the year-ago loss per share.
The consensus mark for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $27.02 million, indicating 117.9% year-over-year growth.
For 2025, IONQ is expected to register a 115.1% increase from a year ago in revenues. Its bottom line is expected to witness an improvement to a loss of 97 cents per share from a loss of $1.56 a year ago.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What to Expect From IonQ's Q3 Performance
Commercial Revenue & Ecosystem Growth: IonQ’s Q2 performance was underlined by accelerating commercial traction with revenues of $20.7 million, beating the top end of the guidance by 15%. The company emphasized new global partnerships (like with Japan’s AIST, South Korea’s KISTI) and a $22 million U.S. deal to build a quantum hub with EPB. All these have resulted in expanding geographies, turning R&D partnerships into paying customers and improving usage of its cloud-accessible quantum hardware and networking offerings. In the third quarter, these factors are expected to have strongly contributed to the company’s top line.
On the flip side, any slowing of deal growth or elongated conversion cycles would raise questions about how soon commercial quantum computing can truly scale.
Investment in Tech Road Map and Cost Structure: In the last-reported quarter, IonQ’s operating costs rose 201% year over year and R&D expenses surged 231%. The company has set a target of achieving milestones like reaching #AQ 64 benchmarking in 2025, a target of 800 logical qubits by 2027 and 80,000 by 2030 and expanding its quantum networking capabilities via acquisitions like Oxford Ionics, Capella Space and Lightsynq. In the third quarter, the heavy flow of investments likely brought partially fruitful results in the form of improved qubit counts/fidelity, networking interconnects and early cost synergies from acquisitions.
However, it’s important to see whether the company continues on the same aggressive investment path (which may depress profitability) or begins signaling more disciplined cost management as scaling progresses. Given their guidance that adjusted EBITDA losses may widen to $211 million in 2025, the interplay of investment versus cost control will be a vital signal.
Potential Downside Risks
Despite IonQ’s strong growth momentum, several risks could weigh on Q3 performance. Operating expenses tripled year over year in the second quarter, driven by soaring R&D costs and stock-based compensation tied to recent acquisitions like Lightsynq, Capella Space, ID Quantique and the Oxford Ionics deal. These moves strengthen IonQ’s long-term technology roadmap but also increase integration complexity and near-term margin pressure. At the same time, IonQ’s third-quarter revenue goal of $25-29 million depends on timely deal conversions from long-cycle government and enterprise contracts, many still in pilot stages. Any delays in integrating acquired technologies, achieving milestones like #AQ 64, or securing recurring commercial demand could limit growth visibility and test IonQ’s execution discipline heading into late 2025.
Competitive Positioning
In the third quarter of 2025, Rigetti Computing (RGTI - Free Report) likely balanced modest revenue growth with continued investment and execution risk. The company posted $1.8 million in second-quarter revenues and a $39.7 million net loss but strengthened liquidity through a $350 million equity raise. Following the quarter, Rigetti secured $5.7 million in purchase orders for two quantum systems and advanced its 36-qubit Cepheus-1-36Q platform, featuring 99.5% two-qubit gate fidelity. These factors suggest slight sequential revenue growth in the third quarter.
In the third quarter of 2025, for D-Wave Quantum (QBTS - Free Report) , after 42% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2, the launch of the Advantage2 quantum computer, with double coherence time and 40% higher energy scale, is likely to have supported further top-line gains. New partnerships with Yonsei University, Incheon Metropolitan City, and enterprise clients such as E.ON, GE Vernova, Nikon, NTT Data and Oxford University also point to expanding adoption across energy, manufacturing, and research sectors.
What the Zacks Model Unveils for IONQ Stock
Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for IonQ this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here.
Earnings ESP: IonQ has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
The stock is currently trading at a lofty forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 72.54, which is significantly higher than the industry average of 4.56. This exceptionally high forward P/S ratio raises the risk of a sharp pullback if third-quarter results or the guidance for the forthcoming period disappoint.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Final Take
While IonQ’s global expansion and quantum networking moves are promising, continued operating losses remain a concern. With the stock trading at a steep premium, any earnings or guidance miss could spark a sharp pullback. Until the third-quarter results are announced and they provide more clarity, and given the stock’s Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), investors should avoid making fresh buy or sell decisions.
Image: Bigstock
IONQ Stock Before Q3 Earnings: Should You Buy Now or Wait?
Key Takeaways
IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) is expected to release its third-quarter 2025 results soon amid surging investor optimism influenced by rapid strategic execution. The company’s stock climbed an impressive 53.3% during the July-September quarter, fueled by bold moves in quantum networking, space-based communications and key acquisitions.
On the heels of a strong second-quarter performance, IonQ is likely to have continued the expansion of its quantum footprint globally throughout the third quarter, bolstered by its accelerated technology roadmap, strategic acquisitions to advance quantum networking and computing capacities and deepening partnerships with key international research and commercial organizations.
IonQ reported earnings beat in one of the trailing four quarters and missed on the other three occasions, the average negative surprise being 166.2%.
Let's delve deeper.
July-September Share Performance of IONQ
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Are Estimates Poised for IonQ?
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter EPS has remained unchanged at a loss of 24 cents per share over the past 30 days. The estimated figure indicates no change from the year-ago loss per share.
The consensus mark for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $27.02 million, indicating 117.9% year-over-year growth.
For 2025, IONQ is expected to register a 115.1% increase from a year ago in revenues. Its bottom line is expected to witness an improvement to a loss of 97 cents per share from a loss of $1.56 a year ago.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What to Expect From IonQ's Q3 Performance
Commercial Revenue & Ecosystem Growth: IonQ’s Q2 performance was underlined by accelerating commercial traction with revenues of $20.7 million, beating the top end of the guidance by 15%. The company emphasized new global partnerships (like with Japan’s AIST, South Korea’s KISTI) and a $22 million U.S. deal to build a quantum hub with EPB. All these have resulted in expanding geographies, turning R&D partnerships into paying customers and improving usage of its cloud-accessible quantum hardware and networking offerings. In the third quarter, these factors are expected to have strongly contributed to the company’s top line.
On the flip side, any slowing of deal growth or elongated conversion cycles would raise questions about how soon commercial quantum computing can truly scale.
Investment in Tech Road Map and Cost Structure: In the last-reported quarter, IonQ’s operating costs rose 201% year over year and R&D expenses surged 231%. The company has set a target of achieving milestones like reaching #AQ 64 benchmarking in 2025, a target of 800 logical qubits by 2027 and 80,000 by 2030 and expanding its quantum networking capabilities via acquisitions like Oxford Ionics, Capella Space and Lightsynq. In the third quarter, the heavy flow of investments likely brought partially fruitful results in the form of improved qubit counts/fidelity, networking interconnects and early cost synergies from acquisitions.
However, it’s important to see whether the company continues on the same aggressive investment path (which may depress profitability) or begins signaling more disciplined cost management as scaling progresses. Given their guidance that adjusted EBITDA losses may widen to $211 million in 2025, the interplay of investment versus cost control will be a vital signal.
Potential Downside Risks
Despite IonQ’s strong growth momentum, several risks could weigh on Q3 performance. Operating expenses tripled year over year in the second quarter, driven by soaring R&D costs and stock-based compensation tied to recent acquisitions like Lightsynq, Capella Space, ID Quantique and the Oxford Ionics deal. These moves strengthen IonQ’s long-term technology roadmap but also increase integration complexity and near-term margin pressure. At the same time, IonQ’s third-quarter revenue goal of $25-29 million depends on timely deal conversions from long-cycle government and enterprise contracts, many still in pilot stages. Any delays in integrating acquired technologies, achieving milestones like #AQ 64, or securing recurring commercial demand could limit growth visibility and test IonQ’s execution discipline heading into late 2025.
Competitive Positioning
In the third quarter of 2025, Rigetti Computing (RGTI - Free Report) likely balanced modest revenue growth with continued investment and execution risk. The company posted $1.8 million in second-quarter revenues and a $39.7 million net loss but strengthened liquidity through a $350 million equity raise. Following the quarter, Rigetti secured $5.7 million in purchase orders for two quantum systems and advanced its 36-qubit Cepheus-1-36Q platform, featuring 99.5% two-qubit gate fidelity. These factors suggest slight sequential revenue growth in the third quarter.
In the third quarter of 2025, for D-Wave Quantum (QBTS - Free Report) , after 42% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2, the launch of the Advantage2 quantum computer, with double coherence time and 40% higher energy scale, is likely to have supported further top-line gains. New partnerships with Yonsei University, Incheon Metropolitan City, and enterprise clients such as E.ON, GE Vernova, Nikon, NTT Data and Oxford University also point to expanding adoption across energy, manufacturing, and research sectors.
What the Zacks Model Unveils for IONQ Stock
Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for IonQ this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here.
Earnings ESP: IonQ has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
IONQ's Valuation
The stock is currently trading at a lofty forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 72.54, which is significantly higher than the industry average of 4.56. This exceptionally high forward P/S ratio raises the risk of a sharp pullback if third-quarter results or the guidance for the forthcoming period disappoint.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Final Take
While IonQ’s global expansion and quantum networking moves are promising, continued operating losses remain a concern. With the stock trading at a steep premium, any earnings or guidance miss could spark a sharp pullback. Until the third-quarter results are announced and they provide more clarity, and given the stock’s Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), investors should avoid making fresh buy or sell decisions.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.