Leonteq Securities AG Has $439,000 Stock Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Key Points

• Leonteq Securities AG cut its AST SpaceMobile stake by 82.6% in the first quarter, leaving it with 5,298 shares valued at about $439,000.
• Wall Street remains cautious on ASTS: analysts’ ratings skew to Hold/Sell, and the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” with an average price target of $85.09.
• Insider selling has also been significant, including a 40,000-share sale by CTO Huiwen Yao and a 1.35 million-share sale by major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani; the company’s latest quarter also missed EPS and revenue estimates.

Leonteq Securities AG lessened its stake in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) by 82.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,298 shares of the company's stock after selling 25,147 shares during the quarter. Leonteq Securities AG's holdings in AST SpaceMobile were worth $439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ASTS. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Advocate Investing Services LLC bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ASTS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. New Street Research set a $106.00 price target on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Friday, May 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $85.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.37, for a total value of $3,854,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 34,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,348,857.50. The trade was a 53.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Hiroshi Mikitani sold 1,350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.22, for a total value of $116,397,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,980,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,412,448,964.10. This represents a 4.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,145,809 shares of company stock valued at $280,645,292. 20.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

NASDAQ ASTS opened at $85.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $33.04 billion, a PE ratio of -47.83 and a beta of 2.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a current ratio of 18.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $87.38 and a 200-day moving average of $89.44. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.08 and a 52-week high of $133.86.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.23) by ($0.43). AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 573.67% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. The firm had revenue of $14.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.01 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.20) earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 1952.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -1.47 EPS for the current year.

AST SpaceMobile Profile

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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