Critical Review: AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) and Its Competitors

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is one of 203 publicly-traded companies in the “Diversified Telecommunication Services” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare AST SpaceMobile to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for AST SpaceMobile and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AST SpaceMobile	2	6	6	0	2.29
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	1753	5349	7764	384	2.44

AST SpaceMobile presently has a consensus price target of $80.67, suggesting a potential upside of 163.21%. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies have a potential upside of 23.53%. Given AST SpaceMobile’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe AST SpaceMobile is more favorable than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AST SpaceMobile	-536.66%	-22.88%	-10.67%
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	-11.87%	-217.43%	-3.33%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.0% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 20.9% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

AST SpaceMobile has a beta of 2.88, indicating that its stock price is 188% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AST SpaceMobile’s rivals have a beta of -4.90, indicating that their average stock price is 590% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
AST SpaceMobile	$115.30 million	-$341.94 million	-14.32
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	$1,920.80 billion	$893.66 million	-168.55

AST SpaceMobile’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than AST SpaceMobile. AST SpaceMobile is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

AST SpaceMobile rivals beat AST SpaceMobile on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and provides access to a space-based cellular broadband network for smartphones in the United States. Its SpaceMobile service provides cellular broadband services to end-users who are out of terrestrial cellular coverage. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.