Voya Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management trimmed its AST SpaceMobile stake by 7.2% in Q3, selling 46,976 shares and holding 608,961 shares worth about $29.9 million, while institutional investors own roughly 60.95% of the company.
• There has been notable insider selling
• Analysts are mixed with a MarketBeat consensus of "Hold" and an average target of $45.66—well below the recent stock price (~$75.84)—and ASTS recently missed Q3 EPS and revenue estimates while remaining unprofitable (negative PE).

Voya Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Free Report) by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 608,961 shares of the company's stock after selling 46,976 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.17% of AST SpaceMobile worth $29,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Binnacle Investments Inc acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Chapman Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at about $38,000. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the second quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 2nd quarter worth about $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ASTS shares. UBS Group cut AST SpaceMobile from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, December 15th. Zacks Research lowered AST SpaceMobile from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Scotiabank upgraded AST SpaceMobile from a "sector underperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $45.60 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Barclays downgraded AST SpaceMobile from an "overweight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.66.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.52, for a total value of $2,940,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at $349,220. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $560,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 387,485 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,699,160. This represents a 2.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 2,140 shares of company stock worth $137,236 and have sold 2,354,621 shares worth $164,348,075. 30.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS stock opened at $75.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 9.56 and a quick ratio of 9.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.83 billion, a PE ratio of -61.16 and a beta of 2.76. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.50 and a 1 year high of $102.79.

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

AST SpaceMobile Company 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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