AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading Down 11.6% on Insider Selling

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) fell 11.6% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $67.53 and last traded at $67.81. 16,031,466 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 32% from the average session volume of 12,110,173 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.70.

Specifically, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $773,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 382,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,572,882.50. The trade was a 2.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.75, for a total value of $159,631,314.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 211,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,743,685.25. The trade was a 91.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank raised AST SpaceMobile from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.60 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. UBS Group cut AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. William Blair began coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Barclays downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AST SpaceMobile has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $70.93 and a 200 day moving average of $55.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 9.56 and a quick ratio of 9.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.69 and a beta of 2.77.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). The company had revenue of $14.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.04 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 27.76% and a negative net margin of 1,639.59%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.10) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter valued at about $705,398,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,668,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351,539 shares during the period. Clear Street Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the third quarter valued at approximately $90,129,000. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% during the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 843,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,182,000 after buying an additional 803,240 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter worth approximately $14,750,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

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.