Looking for stocks that are trading at significant discounts to average analyst price targets is a great way to find potential additions to your portfolio. While investors shouldn’t buy such stocks without further research, starting a search using this filter can help you zoom in on stocks that are likely to move higher.
The two favorites on Wall Street are IonQ(NYSE: IONQ) and Sound Hound Artificial Intelligence (NASDAQ: SOUN). Wall Street analysts covering IonQ have an average price target of $74.89 for the stock. Given that it’s trading at around $33.30, the forecast implies an upside of 125%. Meanwhile, SoundHound AI has an average price target of $16.31, according to Yahoo Finance. It is currently trading around $7.50 and is expected to rise 117%.
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If these stocks can deliver returns like these, buying them at today’s levels would be a no-brainer. But are they sure bets?
Image source: Getty Images.
IonQ and SoundHound AI are both high-risk, high-potential reward stocks.
IonQ is a pure field in quantum computing. With no other businesses trying to support it, it must achieve commercial relevance in quantum computing or risk going bankrupt. There are many different technical approaches to this emerging technology, and IonQ takes a less common approach: trapped ion qubits. While all of the various methods have their advantages and disadvantages, the greatest advantage of the trapped ion method is its superior accuracy. Since error correction and mitigation are major challenges for all quantum computing companies, having an advantage in these areas is a good thing. IonQ currently holds the world record for quantum computing accuracy in a key benchmark, and if it can maintain its lead, it could very well become a huge winner in quantum computing.
SoundHound AI combines speech recognition technology with generative artificial intelligence. This has the potential to become a huge market as its software can replace human workers in a variety of customer interactions. These include tasks such as taking restaurant drive-thru orders (an area SoundHound AI already performs well for many clients) and handling customer service calls. If SoundHound AI’s technology could replace or supplement customer service representatives, it could be a huge success because that’s a huge market.
While the bull case for these two stocks is fairly clear, their paths to achieving their price targets are murkier. Since October 2025, the market has been selling off riskier stocks as investors shift to more stable options. SoundHound AI and IonQ are casualties of this shift. However, this could change immediately if the market’s appetite for risk rebounds.
That shift should eventually happen, but are these two acquisitions the right time now?
IonQ may generate some revenue, but that will come primarily from contracts rather than large-scale hardware sales. Therefore, valuing IonQ using traditional metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio (which is still as high as 94 today) is not a valid way to evaluate the stock. A better way to look at the stock is to consider its potential market opportunity and how far ahead IonQ is in the fight for that market share. Currently, IonQ has a sizable lead over the competition, with estimates that the annual quantum computing market opportunity will reach approximately $72 billion by 2035. That’s huge potential, making IonQ a solid long shot with its current market capitalization of about $10 billion.
SoundHound AI actually brings in significant revenue, but isn’t yet profitable. But price-to-sales is a useful way to value it—at 20 times sales, SoundHound AI isn’t cheap.
SOUN PS ratio data provided by YCharts.
However, with revenue growth exceeding 67% in the most recent quarter, this appears to be a solid risk-reward situation.
I think SoundHound AI and IonQ are poised for strong growth through the remainder of 2026. While they may not live up to Wall Street’s expectations, if they perform well in their respective industries, they could be rewarded with greater returns in the future.
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Keithen Drury works at IonQ and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool holds positions and recommends IonQ and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Two unstoppable growth stocks could soar 117% and 125% in 2026, according to Wall Street Analysts. Originally published by The Motley Fool
