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

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.0857.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $106.00 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS opened at $85.13 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $87.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a current ratio of 18.47. AST SpaceMobile has a 52 week low of $36.08 and a 52 week high of $133.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.04 billion, a PE ratio of -47.83 and a beta of 2.69.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 573.67% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. The company had revenue of $14.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.01 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.20) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1952.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile will post -1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 45,809 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total value of $4,297,342.29. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 503,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,244,498.39. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owned 34,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,348,857.50. This trade represents a 53.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 3,145,809 shares of company stock worth $280,645,292 over the last three months. Company insiders own 20.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,560,687,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,292 shares in the last quarter. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter valued at about $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% in 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,749,000 after purchasing an additional 402,505 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,951,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,011,000 after purchasing an additional 350,690 shares in the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.