Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Key Points

• Jefferies bought a new position of 4,474 AST SpaceMobile shares (~$209,000) in Q2, joining other institutional buyers (Swiss National Bank, Legal & General), with institutional ownership at 60.95%.
• AST SpaceMobile missed Q3 estimates, reporting EPS of ($0.45) vs. ($0.18) expected and revenue of $14.74M vs. $22.04M expected, leaving very negative margins despite revenue rising 1,236% year-over-year.
• Analyst coverage is mixed with an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $45.66; the stock recently traded near $56.52 and has a market cap of $20.74 billion.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 4,474 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at about $569,000. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 22.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 182,190 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,513,000 after purchasing an additional 33,128 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $485,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 360,700 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,856,000 after purchasing an additional 50,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 16.8% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 41,800 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,953,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a "sector underperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $45.60 price target for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, November 24th. Zacks Research downgraded AST SpaceMobile from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Barclays cut AST SpaceMobile from an "overweight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of ASTS stock opened at $56.52 on Friday. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.50 and a 1-year high of $102.79. The company has a current ratio of 9.56, a quick ratio of 9.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $20.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.58 and a beta of 2.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $67.84 and a 200-day moving average of $51.59.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Adriana Cisneros bought 750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 20th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $50.79 per share, for a total transaction of $38,092.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 784,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,823,270.83. This represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total value of $1,623,200.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $192,755. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 30.90% of the company's stock.

AST SpaceMobile 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.

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