Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys Shares of 14,576 AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 14,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $331,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 57.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 641,678 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,539,000 after buying an additional 234,517 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 554.5% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,482 shares of the company's stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 2,950 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 667.1% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,454 shares of the company's stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 4,743 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,266,713 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,728,000 after buying an additional 135,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 37,662 shares of the company's stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 6,982 shares in the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

Shares of ASTS stock traded up $0.17 on Friday, hitting $45.88. 6,101,742 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,757,548. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 10.62 and a quick ratio of 10.62. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 12 month low of $11.41 and a 12 month high of $54.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $32.88 and a 200 day moving average of $27.44.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.03). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 23.56% and a negative net margin of 7,033.22%. The business had revenue of $0.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.85 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was 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. This represents a 3.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 4,250 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.60, for a total value of $147,050.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 20,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $717,950. This represents a 17.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 184,250 shares of company stock worth $6,146,750 in the last ninety days. 41.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASTS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Roth Capital initiated coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 target price (up from $36.00) on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Bank of America assumed coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating and set a $45.40 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, May 5th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $45.34.

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.