Investing.com -- Quantum computing pure play Quantinuum (NASDAQ: QNT) saw its shares rally 4.9% in premarket trading on Thursday following a bullish upgrade from Morgan Stanley. The investment bank raised its rating on the company to Overweight from Equal-weight while lowering its price target to $62.00 from $78.00, citing superior technical capabilities and market execution.

The adjustment reflects a broader re-evaluation of the emerging quantum computing sector, which Morgan Stanley estimates could unlock a market exceeding $100 billion by 2040. Analyst Joseph Moore highlighted that while hardware approaches vary significantly across pure-play developers, Quantinuum stands out as the most advanced contestant in the industry.

To evaluate competing platforms amid negligible current revenues, Morgan Stanley established a proprietary framework assessing technical progress, execution, manufacturability, and commercial indicators. The firm weighted technical metrics most heavily, noting that technological differentiation remains the clearest gauge of long-term viability at this stage.

Against that backdrop, Quantinuum emerged as Morgan Stanley’s primary conviction pick among pure quantum computing providers. The analyst emphasized that despite Quantinuum's industry-leading technical milestones and execution record, public markets currently assign the company the lowest revenue multiple in its peer group relative to 2030 projections.

The $62 price target implies approximately 88% upside from recent trading levels, reflecting confidence in Quantinuum’s trajectory toward commercial scale. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley maintained its Equal-weight rating on competitor IonQ and initiated coverage on Infleqtion and Xanadu with Equal-weight ratings as investors evaluate competing hardware architectures.

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