AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from analysts, with six ratings for hold and four for buy, and an average price target of $45.27 among those covering the stock.
• Recent insider activity includes CFO Andrew Martin Johnson selling 20,000 shares for approximately $1.05 million, representing a 4.79% decrease in his ownership.
• AST SpaceMobile reported a significant loss with an EPS of ($0.41) for the last quarter, missing estimates and experiencing a negative net margin of over 7,200%.

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the ten analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $45.2714.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. William Blair began coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. Roth Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $45.40 to $42.90 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group lowered AST SpaceMobile from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded AST SpaceMobile from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th.

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total transaction of $1,049,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 397,485 shares in the company, valued at $20,860,012.80. This represents a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total value of $1,623,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at $192,755. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 34.15% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASTS. Rakuten Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $705,398,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $203,375,000. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 843,554 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,182,000 after buying an additional 803,240 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $14,750,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at $21,754,000. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASTS opened at $56.94 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.63. The company has a current ratio of 8.23, a quick ratio of 8.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.13 and a beta of 2.42. AST SpaceMobile has a one year low of $17.50 and a one year high of $60.95.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.19) by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $1.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 7,213.90% and a negative return on equity of 26.81%. Sell-side analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

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.

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