Calamos Advisors LLC Takes $705,000 Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Key Points

• Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new stake of 9,700 shares in AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) during Q4, valued at approximately $705,000.
• Corporate insiders have been heavy sellers recently — including CTO Huiwen Yao and major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani — with insiders offloading about 3.08 million shares worth $274.45 million in the last three months.
• Analysts are mixed and cautious: the consensus rating is "Reduce" with an average target price of $82.51; ASTS also reported an EPS miss despite very strong year-over-year revenue growth.

Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 9,700 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $705,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ASTS. REAP Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 225.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 650 shares of the company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASTS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, March 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $117.00 price target on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. B. Riley Financial lowered their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut AST SpaceMobile from a "sell" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $82.51.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

NASDAQ ASTS opened at $77.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $29.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -58.54 and a beta of 2.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 16.27 and a current ratio of 16.35. The business's 50 day moving average price is $87.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.73. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.07 and a fifty-two week high of $129.89.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $54.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 482.16% and a negative return on equity of 23.02%. AST SpaceMobile's quarterly revenue was up 2731.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.88, for a total transaction of $3,555,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $422,180. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,690,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.42, for a total value of $154,499,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 29,330,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,681,362,770.10. This represents a 5.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 3,080,000 shares of company stock worth $274,452,000. Corporate insiders own 30.90% of the company's stock.

About AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile is a U.S.-based aerospace company developing a space-based cellular broadband network designed to connect standard mobile phones and other devices directly to satellites. The company's core proposition is “space-to-cell” service: operating a constellation of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites equipped with large, high-power phased-array antennas to provide wide-area mobile broadband without requiring users to buy specialized terminals or handset modifications.

AST SpaceMobile designs, builds and operates satellite payloads and supporting ground infrastructure.

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