AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) has been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.0857.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen cut AST SpaceMobile from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. New Street Research set a $106.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Friday, May 29th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upped their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, Director Julio A. Torres sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.34, for a total value of $1,145,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 43,239 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,300,865.26. This represents a 25.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.22, for a total transaction of $116,397,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,980,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,412,448,964.10. This trade represents a 4.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 3,145,809 shares of company stock valued at $280,645,292 over the last ninety days. 20.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,560,687,000 after buying an additional 1,568,292 shares during the period. Vodafone Ventures Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at about $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,661,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $338,569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,425,199 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,749,000 after acquiring an additional 402,505 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,951,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $287,011,000 after purchasing an additional 350,690 shares during the period. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of AST SpaceMobile stock opened at $74.95 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.83. AST SpaceMobile has a 12-month low of $36.08 and a 12-month high of $133.86. The company has a current ratio of 18.47, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $29.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -42.11 and a beta of 2.69.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by ($0.43). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 24.87% and a negative net margin of 573.67%.The company had revenue of $14.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.01 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.20) earnings per share. AST SpaceMobile’s revenue was up 1952.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile will post -1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

AST SpaceMobile is a U.S.-based aerospace company developing a space-based cellular broadband network designed to connect standard mobile phones and other devices directly to satellites. The company’s core proposition is “space-to-cell” service: operating a constellation of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites equipped with large, high-power phased-array antennas to provide wide-area mobile broadband without requiring users to buy specialized terminals or handset modifications.

AST SpaceMobile designs, builds and operates satellite payloads and supporting ground infrastructure.