IonQ price target raised to $50 from $40 at Benchmark

Benchmark raised the firm’s price target on IonQ (IONQ) to $50 from $40 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire UK-based Oxford Ionics in a transaction valued at $1.075B, mostly in stock. The transaction expands IonQ’s technology portfolio with Oxford Ionic’s proprietary ion-trap-on-chip architecture and “further solidifies the company’s leadership in trapped-ion quantum computing,” the analyst tells investors.