AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS Shares Sold by T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 16%, now holding approximately 2.37 million shares valued at $53.9 million.
• Insider sales included COO Shanti B. Gupta selling 10,000 shares for about $418,400, reducing their ownership by 3.17%.
• AST SpaceMobile reported a net loss of ($0.41) per share for the last quarter, significantly missing analysts' expectations.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) by 16.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,369,141 shares of the company's stock after selling 451,843 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned 0.75% of AST SpaceMobile worth $53,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ASTS. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 61.9% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,321 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 10,244 shares of the company's stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares during the period. Close Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 72.4% in the 1st quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,810 shares of the company's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,525 shares of the company's stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,016 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 388.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the company's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.84, for a total transaction of $418,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 305,667 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,107.28. The trade was a 3.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 4,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.60, for a total transaction of $147,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 20,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $717,950. The trade was a 17.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 129,250 shares of company stock worth $4,671,650 over the last ninety days. 34.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on ASTS shares. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of 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. B. Riley restated a "buy" rating and issued a $44.00 target price (up previously from $36.00) on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, May 5th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $48.41.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ASTS opened at $47.07 on Friday. 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 50-day moving average price of $49.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.34. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.50 and a twelve month high of $60.95. The company has a market capitalization of $16.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.90 and a beta of 2.33.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $1.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.37 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 7,213.90% and a negative return on equity of 26.81%. As a group, research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.