D-Wave Quantum: B. Riley Trims Its Target to $27 as a 91.90% Cancer Result Meets a Lawsuit and a November Deadline

D-Wave Quantum drew two very different kinds of attention on the same day. The quantum-computing group flagged peer-reviewed-style research out of Florida Atlantic University showing lung-cancer prediction with limited data, while its stock slipped 5.7% as B. Riley Securities cut its price target. The two developments pull in opposite directions, and neither settles the question that matters most to shareholders: when the technology starts showing up in revenue.

The research numbers are eye-catching. Using D-Wave's annealing hardware, the FAU-led team reported accuracy of 94.31% in simulation and 91.90% on quantum hardware. The company itself stresses that the experimental dataset included synthetic examples rather than newly collected patient records, and the researchers labelled the findings provisional. That caveat belongs at the heart of any assessment, not in a footnote — a high hit rate is a study result, not proof of performance in patient care.

A target cut that is not a downgrade

On the valuation side, Craig Ellis of B. Riley Securities lowered his price target to $27 from $40, according to media reports. He kept his buy rating. Investors should read those two signals separately: the expected target moved down sharply, but the analyst's fundamentally positive view of the stock did not. The cut is the concrete, company-specific valuation signal behind the recent weakness — it is not a downgrade.

The broader tape has not helped. Reports on Friday tied pressure on D-Wave and other quantum-computing names to a wider technology selloff, with Intel's results and outlook and Amazon's earnings unsettling investors. That describes the backdrop rather than a fresh operating development at D-Wave, and it does not by itself explain the whole of the latest move.

The order-book gap is the real test

What media reports from 26 October suggest is that investors are focused on the gap between growth in order intake and its conversion into revenue. A rising backlog can support expectations, but it is not the same as realised sales. That is the yardstick for the next set of numbers: not new use cases alone, but their translation into proceeds.

D-Wave has scheduled third-quarter 2026 results for 10 November, before the market opens, with a webcast at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. That date carries more weight for the economic picture than another isolated application announcement. Research can show what a technology might be good for; financial statements show what has actually reached the business. Both matter, and at the market they should not be confused with each other.

A legal cloud alongside the science

A separate risk factor arrived on Thursday, when Pomerantz announced that a securities class action had been filed against D-Wave and certain executives. These are allegations, not court findings. The distinction matters as much as the one around the research: a lawsuit neither justifies a final verdict on the company nor should it be ignored while positive technology headlines circulate. It adds an independent layer of uncertainty.

Until the November print, the stock sits between an analyst recommendation that remains positive and a target that has been pulled in considerably, with a research advance carrying clear limits attached. Price target, study and financial report each address a different question, and none substitutes for the others. The bridge from application to revenue is still the missing piece — and the quarterly figures, not the accuracy score, are where it gets tested.