Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Takes $1.10 Million Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 52,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,100,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 49.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,987,351 shares of the company's stock worth $316,233,000 after buying an additional 4,955,941 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter worth about $59,523,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 57.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 641,678 shares of the company's stock worth $13,539,000 after acquiring an additional 234,517 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,496,825 shares of the company's stock valued at $73,801,000 after acquiring an additional 229,759 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,380,000. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $47.90 to $45.40 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Roth Capital began coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, May 5th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.40.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

Shares of ASTS traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $25.03. The company's stock had a trading volume of 13,684,084 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,601,588. The company has a current ratio of 5.80, a quick ratio of 5.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 1-year low of $4.00 and a 1-year high of $39.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.51. The stock has a market cap of $7.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.81 and a beta of 2.05.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.17) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $0.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.85 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 55,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.82, for a total value of $1,475,100.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Julio A. Torres sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.73, for a total transaction of $614,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 52,628 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,617,258.44. The trade was a 27.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 34.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.