AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading 1.7% Higher – Still a Buy?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)’s stock price traded up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $92.57 and last traded at $89.58. 19,586,515 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 19% from the average session volume of 16,396,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at $88.10.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $108.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $117.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. New Street Research assumed coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AST SpaceMobile has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $79.45.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $34.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -50.33 and a beta of 2.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a current ratio of 18.47. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.10.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $422,180. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,690,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were 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 directly owned 29,330,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,681,362,770.10. This 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 3,095,000 shares of company stock valued at $275,597,100 in the last three months. 20.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,560,687,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,292 shares during the period. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter worth approximately $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,425,199 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,749,000 after purchasing an additional 402,505 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% during the fourth 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 during the period. 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.