AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” by Analysts

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $81.3250.

ASTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. New Street Research set a $106.00 price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, May 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of 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, Zacks Research upgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS stock opened at $92.06 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 18.47 and a quick ratio of 18.37. AST SpaceMobile has a one year low of $32.25 and a one year high of $133.86. The stock has a market cap of $35.73 billion, a PE ratio of -51.72 and a beta of 2.70. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.16.

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

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.37, for a total value of $3,854,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 34,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,348,857.50. This represents a 53.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,690,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.42, for a total transaction of $154,499,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 29,330,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,681,362,770.10. This trade represents a 5.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 3,140,000 shares of company stock valued at $279,903,150 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 20.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 93,836 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,776,000 after acquiring an additional 1,036 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new stake in AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter valued at about $445,000. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 23.5% during the 1st quarter. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. now owns 10,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $837,000 after purchasing an additional 1,923 shares in the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 105.3% during the 1st quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $825,000 after purchasing an additional 5,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 140.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,644,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,259,000 after purchasing an additional 960,045 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.