AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $103.50, but opened at $109.68. AST SpaceMobile shares last traded at $108.4550, with a volume of 4,842,945 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ASTS. Barclays downgraded AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. B. Riley lowered shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $43.80 billion, a PE ratio of -95.80 and a beta of 2.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $75.83 and its 200 day moving average is $63.99. The company has a current ratio of 9.56, a quick ratio of 9.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, Director Keith R. Larson bought 625 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $80.00 per share, with a total value of $50,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $161,200. The trade was a 44.96% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.75, for a total value of $159,631,314.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 211,379 shares in the company, valued at $14,743,685.25. This represents a 91.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders bought 2,765 shares of company stock worth $187,236 and sold 2,354,621 shares worth $164,348,075. Corporate insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the 3rd quarter valued at about $90,129,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,754,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 125.1% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 782,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,382,000 after purchasing an additional 434,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 610.4% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 475,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,222,000 after purchasing an additional 408,595 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

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.