AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading Down 3.6% – What’s Next?

by · The Markets Daily

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTSGet Free Report)’s share price traded down 3.6% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $64.59 and last traded at $66.31. 12,829,769 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 18,313,539 shares. The stock had previously closed at $68.82.

Key AST SpaceMobile News

Here are the key news stories impacting AST SpaceMobile this week:

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on ASTS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $117.00 to $106.00 in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $85.09.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on ASTS

AST SpaceMobile Stock Down 3.6%

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $87.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.74 billion, a PE ratio of -37.25 and a beta of 2.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 18.47 and a quick ratio of 18.37.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTSGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $14.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.01 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.20) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1952.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.37, for a total transaction of $3,854,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,348,857.50. This trade represents a 53.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Julio A. Torres sold 15,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.34, for a total transaction of $1,145,100.00. Following the sale, the director owned 43,239 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,300,865.26. The trade was a 25.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 105,809 shares of company stock valued at $9,748,492. Corporate insiders own 20.89% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vodafone Ventures Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter worth about $397,413,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,568,292 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 8,016.7% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 1,269,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253,967 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

About AST SpaceMobile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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