Why Rigetti Rgti Stock Is Falling Today Gurufocus

Bonisiwe Shabane
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why rigetti rgti stock is falling today gurufocus

Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI) is trading lower Friday afternoon, marking a reversal after a surge earlier in the week driven by retail momentum and sector-wide optimism. The recent volatility comes amid a classic Santa Rally, where retail investors earlier this week rotated into high-beta quantum stocks while institutional trading desks thin out for the holidays. What To Know: Earlier gains this week were fueled by a wave of social media sentiment focused on Rigetti’s 2026 roadmap, which promises higher-qubit systems and significantly lower error rates. This retail interest was compounded by a halo effect from peers like IonQ and D-Wave, which also saw spikes following strategic milestones and bullish analyst coverage. Notably, Wedbush recently initiated coverage on Rigetti with an Outperform rating and a $35 price target, citing the company’s advanced chiplets and vertically integrated production capabilities as key differentiators. Market observers note that this week’s price action fits the pattern of a “Holiday Gap,” where lower trading volumes between Dec.

20 and New Year’s allow retail sentiment to move small-cap stocks more aggressively. While retail investors likely drove the stock higher earlier in the week on the belief that the “quantum age” could arrive by 2026, Friday’s downturn suggests a pause in the momentum as the holiday... Rigetti Computing, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI - Get Free Report) shares fell 8.7% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $22.33 and last traded at $22.38. 28,050,431 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 69,919,023 shares.

The stock had previously closed at $24.51. RGTI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Williams Trading set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Rigetti Computing in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Rigetti Computing in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. B.

Riley lowered their price objective on shares of Rigetti Computing from $42.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Benchmark reduced their target price on Rigetti Computing from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Alliance Global Partners reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Rigetti Computing in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Rigetti Computing presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $31.22. View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Rigetti Computing

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.22 and a beta of 1.68. The firm's 50-day moving average is $30.14 and its 200 day moving average is $23.49. Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.95 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.17 million. Rigetti Computing had a negative net margin of 4,741.49% and a negative return on equity of 21.98%.

The business's revenue for the quarter was down 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Rigetti Computing, Inc. will post -0.34 EPS for the current year. NEW YORK, Dec. 28, 2025, 11:54 a.m. ET — Market closed (Weekend)

Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI) heads into the final trading week of 2025 with investors digesting a sharp Friday reversal in one of the market’s most momentum-driven corners: “pure-play” quantum computing stocks. In the last regular session (Friday, Dec. 26), Rigetti shares finished around $22.38, down roughly 8.6%–8.7% on the day after swinging between about $22.33 and $24.51. MarketBeat The move matters because it underscores what traders have learned repeatedly in 2025: RGTI can post rapid gains on optimism and positioning, but it can also retrace quickly when liquidity thins and risk appetite...

That dynamic has been especially pronounced in late December, when holiday conditions can amplify intraday swings. The drop followed a burst of quantum-sector enthusiasm earlier in the week. Trefis noted that RGTI surged sharply on Dec. 22 amid a broader rally in quantum-computing names, with no clear, company-specific headline tied to the move—an important detail for investors trying to separate “theme momentum” from fundamentals. Trefis By Friday, the tone changed.

Benzinga described Rigetti’s pullback as a reversal after an earlier surge tied to retail momentum and broader optimism in high-beta quantum stocks during the holiday period. Benzinga Rigetti Computing RGTI shares slid more than 7% Friday, closing at $16.65 after its second-quarter results underscored just how wide the gap remains between revenue and costs. The company posted revenue of $1.8 million against operating expenses of $20.4 million, while net loss ballooned to $39.7 million. Nearly $23 million of that came from non-cash charges tied to complex financial instruments. Even with a cash cushion of $571.6 milllion, bolstered by a recent $350 million equity raise, the imbalance weighed on sentiment.

Still, Rigetti used the earnings call to showcase its latest quantum leap: the Cepheus-1-36Q system. The 36-qubit machine features a multi-chip design with error rates cut in half compared with the earlier Ankaa-3. Median two-qubit gate fidelity hit 99%, a first for a multi-chip setup, and the system is already live on Rigetti's Quantum Cloud Services and will soon expand to Microsoft MSFT Azure. The chiplet-based approach, first previewed in 2021, now integrates the most chiplets yet in one machine, with faster two-qubit gate speeds and improved couplers. Rigetti said it expects to scale this to 100-plus qubits before the end of 2025, targeting an even higher 99.5% fidelity. Quantum computing exploded onto the investment scene in late 2024, igniting a frenzy that propelled pure-play stocks to astronomical heights.

Rigetti Computing (RGTI) emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries, with shares rocketing over 800% in a single month amid breakthrough announcements and surging optimism. Over the past three years, RGTI has delivered staggering gains of more than 3,200%, and at its peak, the stock was up over 8,200% from historic lows. Early investors have undeniably struck a rich motherlode, turning modest bets into life-changing wealth. Yet for those new to the quantum sector, the ride has been brutal. On Friday, RGTI tumbled almost 9% to close 61% below its October high of $58, erasing much of the year's explosive gains. This pullback mirrors broader pain across quantum stocks like IonQ (IONQ) and D-Wave (QBTS), which have also plunged sharply after similar booms and busts.

With the entire sector reeling, investors need to ask: Is the hype surrounding quantum computing finally over – and is RGTI still a buy? Quantum computing harnesses principles of quantum mechanics, using qubits that can exist in multiple states simultaneously (superposition) and become entangled. Unlike classical bits limited to 0 or 1, this enables quantum systems to explore vast solutions exponentially faster for certain problems. The potential is transformative: faster drug discovery by simulating molecules, optimized financial models, unbreakable encryption breakthroughs, and efficient logistics routing. Quantum could reshape industries from pharmaceuticals to materials science, unlocking solutions classical computers can't touch in reasonable time.

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