Shares of IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) rose 259.1% in 2023, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The quantum computing researcher and systems developer reported more bottom-line misses than positive surprises last year, but its revenue grew faster than expected in each report. More to the point, the company seems to have found a path toward long-term profitability as its trapped ion quantum computing technology evolves and finds real-world use cases.

Let's start with the pure numbers. IonQ's bottom-line earnings fell short of analysts' consensus estimates in three of the last calendar year's four financial updates. However, top-line sales always exceeded the analyst group's average estimates. The average margin of surprise on this metric was 20.5%. Not too shabby, right?

I'm talking about fairly small numbers, of course. IonQ is a young and small company, early in its quest for long-term success. The most lucrative report covered the third quarter, where sales rose 122% year over year to land at $6.1 million.

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Source Fool.com