AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) has earned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $45.2714.

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. William Blair assumed coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Zacks Research cut AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group cut AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Scotiabank cut AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $42.90 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Up 2.8%

ASTS opened at $73.70 on Monday. AST SpaceMobile has a 1-year low of $17.50 and a 1-year high of $102.79. The company has a current ratio of 8.23, a quick ratio of 8.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.99 and a beta of 2.41. The business has a 50 day moving average of $57.61 and a 200-day moving average of $44.47.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.22). AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 7,213.90% and a negative return on equity of 26.81%. The business had revenue of $1.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.37 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total transaction of $1,049,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 397,485 shares in the company, valued at $20,860,012.80. This represents a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total value of $1,623,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,755. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 41.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASTS. Rakuten Group Inc. acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth about $705,398,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth about $203,375,000. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 843,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,182,000 after purchasing an additional 803,240 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth about $14,750,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter worth about $21,754,000. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops and provides access to a space-based cellular broadband network for smartphones in the United States. Its SpaceMobile service provides cellular broadband services to end-users who are out of terrestrial cellular coverage. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.