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

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eleven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $81.3250.

ASTS has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research raised AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $117.00 to $106.00 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

AST SpaceMobile stock opened at $92.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $35.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -51.72 and a beta of 2.70. The company has a current ratio of 18.47, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $89.69 and a 200-day moving average of $87.16. AST SpaceMobile has a 52 week low of $32.25 and a 52 week high of $133.86.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by ($0.43). The business had revenue of $14.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.01 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 573.67% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1952.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.20) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile will post -1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $3,348,857.50. The trade was a 53.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,350,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.22, for a total value of $116,397,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,980,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,412,448,964.10. This represents a 4.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,140,000 shares of company stock valued at $279,903,150. 20.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter worth approximately $397,413,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,668,000 after buying an additional 2,351,539 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 3rd quarter valued at about $90,129,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,425,199 shares during the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.