AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock Price Down 11.6% After Insider Selling

Key Points

• AST SpaceMobile shares fell 11.6% intraday, trading as low as $67.53 (last $67.81) on Monday with volume up ~32% to about 16.0M shares following insider selling.
• A major shareholder, Tower Corp, sold 2,288,621 shares (~$159.6M) reducing its stake by 91.54%, and COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares (~$773k), both disclosed in SEC filings.
• Analysts are mixed but cautious: the consensus rating is a "Hold" with a $45.66 price target, and recent notes include several downgrades and a reaffirmed sell from Weiss; the company also reported a Q3 EPS miss and heavily negative margins.

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 11.6% during mid-day trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $67.53 and last traded at $67.81. Approximately 16,031,466 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 32% from the average daily volume of 12,110,173 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.70.

Specifically, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $773,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 382,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,572,882.50. The trade was a 2.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.75, for a total value of $159,631,314.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 211,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,743,685.25. This represents a 91.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. William Blair assumed coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Zacks Research downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from an "overweight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 9.56 and a quick ratio of 9.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a PE ratio of -54.69 and a beta of 2.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $71.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.98.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 27.76% and a negative net margin of 1,639.59%.The company had revenue of $14.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.10) EPS. AST SpaceMobile's quarterly revenue was up 1236.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Group Inc. bought a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth $705,398,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 342.2% in the second quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 132,087 shares of the company's stock worth $6,172,000 after buying an additional 102,217 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth about $14,750,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 2nd quarter worth about $21,754,000. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 14.0% during the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 77,159 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,606,000 after acquiring an additional 9,448 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company's stock.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.