AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Down 3.5% – Here’s Why

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)’s stock price dropped 3.5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $68.05 and last traded at $68.4140. Approximately 12,401,453 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 15,362,268 shares. The stock had previously closed at $70.89.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASTS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank cut AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $43.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. New Street Research set a $115.00 target price on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Barclays raised 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AST SpaceMobile currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $82.51.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 16.27 and a current ratio of 16.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.37. The company has a market cap of $26.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -51.83 and a beta of 2.60.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $54.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 23.02% and a negative net margin of 482.16%.The firm’s revenue was up 2731.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,690,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.42, for a total transaction of $154,499,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 29,330,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,681,362,770.10. The trade was a 5.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.88, for a total value of $3,555,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $422,180. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,080,000 shares of company stock worth $274,452,000. Insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,560,687,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,292 shares during the last quarter. Vodafone Ventures Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter valued at about $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,661,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,425,199 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,749,000 after acquiring an additional 402,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,951,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $287,011,000 after acquiring an additional 350,690 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

About AST SpaceMobile

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.