AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Down 10.5% – Should You Sell?

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) fell 10.5% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $78.52 and last traded at $78.67. 14,626,547 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 2% from the average session volume of 14,935,337 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.86.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ASTS. Scotiabank cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Zacks Research raised AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group upped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $43.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $63.77.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Down 10.5%

The stock has a market cap of $30.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -59.60 and a beta of 2.77. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $95.72 and its 200 day moving average is $78.11.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $54.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 482.16% and a negative return on equity of 23.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2731.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.88, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vodafone Ventures Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter worth approximately $397,413,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,668,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth approximately $90,129,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,425,199 shares in the last quarter. 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.