Head-To-Head Survey: NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) and IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) and IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.2% of NetApp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of IonQ shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of NetApp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of IonQ shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares NetApp and IonQ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NetApp	19.18%	119.13%	14.39%
IonQ	-553.27%	-22.29%	-13.20%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for NetApp and IonQ, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NetApp	0	11	8	1	2.50
IonQ	1	4	10	0	2.60

NetApp presently has a consensus price target of $213.20, indicating a potential downside of 0.70%. IonQ has a consensus price target of $63.33, indicating a potential upside of 84.68%. Given IonQ’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe IonQ is more favorable than NetApp.

Risk & Volatility

NetApp has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IonQ has a beta of 3.36, meaning that its stock price is 236% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares NetApp and IonQ”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NetApp	$6.92 billion	6.09	$1.28 billion	$7.09	30.28
IonQ	$130.02 million	100.49	-$510.38 million	($4.66)	-7.36

NetApp has higher revenue and earnings than IonQ. IonQ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NetApp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

NetApp beats IonQ on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc. provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID. In addition, it provides cloud storage and data services comprising NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud, and cloud operations services, such as NetApp Cloud Insights, Spot by NetApp, and Instaclustr. Further, the company offers application-aware data management service under the NetApp Astra name; and professional and support services, such as strategic consulting, professional, managed, and support services. Additionally, it provides assessment, design, implementation, and migration services. The company serves the energy, financial service, government, technology, internet, life science, healthcare service, manufacturing, media, entertainment, animation, video postproduction, and markets through a direct sales force and an ecosystem of partners. NetApp, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About IonQ

IonQ, Inc. engages in the development of general-purpose quantum computing systems in the United States. It sells access to quantum computers of various qubit capacities. The company makes access to its quantum computers through cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon Braket, Microsoft’s Azure Quantum, and Google’s Cloud Marketplace, as well as through its cloud service. It also provides contracts associated with the design, development, and construction of specialized quantum computing hardware systems; maintenance and support services; and consulting services related to co-developing algorithms on quantum computing systems. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in College Park, Maryland.