Rigetti Computing (RGTI +2.00%), one of a group of high-flying quantum computing stocks, took a dive last month as a combination of news items and macroeconomic concerns weighed on the stock.
Shares of Rigetti, which currently has negligible revenue, have soared in recent months on investor excitement over quantum computing, but the stock remains a speculative play. Because of that, the stock is highly volatile, so it wasn't surprising that it didn't take much for the stock to fall 36% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
As you can see from the chart below, the stock fell over most of the month as investor hopes for Rigetti and its start-up quantum computing peers soured.
Rigetti faces doubts
There wasn't any significant company-specific news out on Rigetti during the month, but the company did receive some bullish notes from Wall Street analysts. On Feb. 10, Alliance Global Partners raised its price target on the stock from $5.50 to $15 and maintained a buy rating on the stock. Alliance noted that the company was expected to be awarded a DARPA Quantum Benchmarking contract last month, which would validate the company's position.
The biggest news from the quantum computing sector last month came on Feb. 19 when Microsoft unveiled its Majorana 1, a quantum chip that it says will lead to quantum computers capable of solving industrial-scale problems in years rather than decades, the timeline that other tech CEOs have estimated.
Quantum stocks like Rigetti briefly rallied on the news, even though it establishes another big tech giant as a formidable competitor in quantum computing. However, the stock rapidly declined at the end of the month as investor sentiment continued to decline around weak consumer-confidence readings, sticky inflation, and the threat of tariffs, which are set to go into effect on goods imported from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday.
Image source: Getty Images.
What's next for Rigetti Computing
Rigetti will report fourth-quarter earnings on March 5 after the market closes. Analysts are expecting the company to report revenue of just $2.5 million, which is down 26% from a year ago. That shows that Rigetti is still in its infancy, and quantum computing has yet to have a meaningful impact in the business world.
The company continues to develop its technology, and it could have a meanignful business years from now, but high expectations are priced into the stock as its market cap is over $2 billion after last month's sell-off. The company is also vulnerable to macroheadwinds as the stock is likely to fall if the economy weakens.
Keep an eye on Q4 earnings, but it will probably take more than that to give the stock a meaningful boost in the current macroenvironment.
