Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Barclays from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential downside of 31.47% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $43.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Scotiabank cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. B. Riley Financial lowered their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $69.12.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASTS opened at $94.85 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $90.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.75. AST SpaceMobile has a 52-week low of $20.26 and a 52-week high of $129.89. 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 company has a market cap of $36.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -71.85 and a beta of 2.81.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $54.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 482.16% and a negative return on equity of 23.02%. AST SpaceMobile’s revenue for the quarter was up 2731.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $422,180. This trade represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at $397,413,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter worth $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,668,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth $90,129,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,425,199 shares during the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.