To The Moon

Seeking out stocks trading well below analysts’ average target prices is often an effective way to uncover potential new additions to an investment portfolio. Investors should certainly not rush into buying based solely on this metric and need to conduct further in-depth research. Yet using it as a starting point for screening can help you quickly zero in on targets poised for substantial gains in the future.

Wall Street is currently quite bullish on two stocks: $IONQ Inc.(IONQ)$ and $SoundHound AI Inc(SOUN)$ . Analysts covering IonQ have set an average target price of $74.89 for the stock, which is currently trading at around $33.30. This translates to a staggering potential upside of 125% based on the target price. According to Yahoo! Finance data, SoundHound AI has an average target price of $16.31, with its current share price at roughly $7.50, also pointing to a 117% upside.

If these two stocks were to deliver such returns, buying them at current prices would undoubtedly be a shrewd move. But are they a surefire bet?

Opportunities in a High-Risk Landscape

Both IonQ and SoundHound AI fall into the high-risk, high-potential reward category.

IonQ is a pure-play quantum computing company with no other business lines to fall back on. It must achieve commercial breakthroughs in the quantum computing space, or it will face an existential crisis. Quantum computing features numerous technological pathways, and IonQ has opted for a relatively niche one: trapped-ion qubits. While each technological approach has its pros and cons, the trapped-ion method’s greatest strength lies in its ultra-high precision. Error correction and fault tolerance are core challenges for all quantum computing firms, making it crucial to build a leading edge in this area. Currently, IonQ holds the world record for quantum computing precision in a key benchmark test. As long as it can maintain this leading position, it is well-positioned to become the biggest winner in the quantum computing sector.

SoundHound AI, for its part, is dedicated to combining speech recognition technology with generative AI. This combination boasts enormous potential, as its software is poised to replace human labor in a multitude of customer interaction scenarios. Examples include processing drive-thru orders at restaurants—where SoundHound AI already has numerous successful use cases—and answering customer service calls. If SoundHound AI’s technology can effectively replace or assist customer service staff, it stands a strong chance of achieving tremendous success in a massive market.

While the bullish thesis for both stocks is clear, the path from their current prices to the target levels will not be smooth. Since October 2025, as investors have rotated into more defensive assets, the market has continued to sell off high-risk stocks, and both SoundHound AI and IonQ have fallen victim to this capital shift. Nevertheless, this trend could reverse at any time once market risk appetite rebounds.

Such a shift is bound to happen eventually, but is now the right time to buy these two stocks?

The Valuation Conundrum

IonQ has generated some revenue, but it stems primarily from partnership contracts rather than the large-scale sales of hardware products. As such, valuing IonQ using traditional metrics like the price-to-earnings ratio, or even the price-to-sales ratio—which currently stands at a lofty 94x—is not sensible. A more effective lens is to look at the potential market size and the size of IonQ’s lead in competing for market share in this space. At present, IonQ holds a clear competitive edge. Projections suggest the global quantum computing market could reach an annual size of approximately $72 billion by 2035. This enormous potential makes IonQ, with a market capitalization of around $10 billion, a solid long-term growth prospect.

SoundHound AI has delivered impressive revenue growth but is yet to turn a profit. Valuing it using the price-to-sales ratio is therefore more appropriate—a 20x P/S ratio is not cheap, yet when paired with its latest quarterly revenue growth of over 67%, this risk-reward profile looks quite attractive.

Overall, SoundHound AI and IonQ are expected to deliver robust growth for the remainder of 2026. While their ultimate gains may fall short of Wall Street’s expectations, if they can continue to make strides in their respective fields, their future returns may prove even more substantial.

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