AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Given New $65.00 Price Target at Barclays

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) had its price objective upped by analysts at Barclays from $60.00 to $65.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential downside of 32.61% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on ASTS. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. B. Riley Financial lowered their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank cut 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $64.60.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS stock opened at $96.46 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.36. The stock has a market cap of $36.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.08 and a beta of 2.81. AST SpaceMobile has a 1 year low of $19.67 and a 1 year high of $129.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 16.35 and a quick ratio of 16.27.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $54.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 23.02% and a negative net margin of 482.16%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2731.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.88, for a total value of $3,555,200.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $422,180. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ASTS. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter worth $397,413,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter worth $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth $90,129,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,425,199 shares in 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.