8,882 Shares in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Purchased by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 8,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 49.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,987,351 shares of the company's stock valued at $316,233,000 after acquiring an additional 4,955,941 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter valued at $59,523,000. Key Colony Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 204.1% during the first quarter. Key Colony Management LLC now owns 596,000 shares of the company's stock worth $13,553,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,496,825 shares of the company's stock valued at $73,801,000 after acquiring an additional 229,759 shares during the period. Finally, Twinbeech Capital LP purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at $4,684,000. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

NASDAQ ASTS traded down $1.31 during trading on Monday, hitting $56.67. 12,392,429 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,929,348. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $37.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.32. The company has a market cap of $17.94 billion, a PE ratio of -28.48 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a current ratio of 10.62, a quick ratio of 10.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.37 and a fifty-two week high of $60.90.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.85 million. Research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In related news, President Scott Wisniewski sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.65, for a total transaction of $1,782,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 545,595 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,450,461.75. This represents a 8.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 55,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.82, for a total value of $1,475,100.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 184,250 shares of company stock valued at $6,146,750. 41.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.