IonQ Stock Jumps on Revenue That Crushed Wall Street's Estimate. Earnings, However, Were Worse Than Expected.

Shares of IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) gained 4.8% in Wednesday's after-hours trading, following the quantum computing company's release of its third-quarter 2025 report.

The stock's gain is attributable to the quarter's revenue crushing Wall Street's expectations and, because of the strong quarter, management raising its full-year 2025 revenue guidance.

Investors obviously focused on revenue, as the company's bottom line fell considerably short of the analyst consensus estimate. This investor reaction is a relatively common dynamic for stocks of companies involved in emerging technologies, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Image source: Getty Images.

IonQ's key numbers

Data source: IonQ. GAAP = generally accepted accounting principles. YOY = year over year. *Calculations by author, except for revenue growth, which was provided by IonQ.

IonQ has been on an acquisition spree recently, so its acquisitions helped it with respect to revenue, but hurt it on the bottom line.

Wall Street was looking for GAAP EPS of $0.44 on revenue of $27 million, so IonQ crushed the top-line expectation but missed big on the bottom-line estimate. The company also easily exceeded its revenue guidance of $25 million to $29 million.

For the first three quarters of the year, IonQ spent $208.7 million running its operations (this is cash flow from operations), compared with spending $66.3 million in the year-ago period. It ended the period with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $1.5 billion. Moreover, it raised $2 billion in a stock offering that closed soon after the quarter ended (mid-October).

Acquisitions

During the third quarter, IonQ completed its acquisition of U.K.-based Oxford Ionics, which the company said will enable "scale, stability, and cost-savings by leveraging existing semiconductor manufacturing."

Soon after the quarter ended (early October), IonQ completed its acquisition of California-based Vector Atomic, which it said will strengthen its "full-stack quantum platform by adding the world's most advanced quantum sensing capabilities."

Quantum sensing products use the properties of quantum mechanics to measure quantities like time, position, and gravity more precisely than classical sensors. Quantum sensing has been in the commercialization stage for some time, unlike quantum computing.

What the CEO had to say

Here's part of CEO Niccolo de Masi's statement in the earnings release:

Our technical achievements continue to solidify IonQ's quantum platform as the most complete and powerful in the world, with a correspondingly larger addressable global market. Our Electronic Qubit Control systems and world-record fidelity, combined with uniquely low unit economics at full fault tolerance, underpin IonQ as the global leader in a class of its own in quantum computing. Meanwhile, we are on a clear trajectory to deliver critical quantum cybersecurity infrastructure, ultra-precise quantum navigation, quantum timing solutions, and large-scale networked quantum systems.

2025 guidance

For full-year 2025, IonQ:

• Raised its revenue guidance to between $106 million and $110 million, up from $82 million to $100 million. This equates to annual growth of 146% to 155%.

• Reaffirmed its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss midpoint guidance with a range of negative $216 million and negative $206 million. This compares to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $107.2 million in 2024.

Cautious optimism

It's understandable investors are optimistic about IonQ's growth prospects, given its strong revenue growth and recent technical accomplishments. That said, caution is needed. IonQ -- and other quantum computing pure-plays, for that matter -- are still in the early stages of generating revenue. Moreover, IonQ's losses and cash burn are expanding.

IonQ stock is only suitable for investors with high-risk tolerances.

If you're interested in quantum stocks, but want to limit your risk, you might consider investing in this quantum computing exchange-traded fund (ETF) I highlighted in January. In 2025, through Nov. 5, Defiance Quantum ETF has returned 38.6% -- more than double the S&P 500 index's 16.8% return.

Beth McKenna has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends IonQ. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.