Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of AST SpaceMobile Call Options (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 145,186 call options on the company. This is an increase of 67% compared to the typical volume of 87,135 call options.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 10.6%

Shares of ASTS stock opened at $44.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 10.62, a quick ratio of 10.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $14.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.29 and a beta of 2.02. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.58. AST SpaceMobile has a twelve month low of $9.32 and a twelve month high of $44.71.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $0.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.85 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 23.56% and a negative net margin of 7,033.22%. Research analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 55,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.08, for a total value of $541,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 315,667 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,389,265.36. The trade was a 4.54% 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 valued at $6,146,750 over the last 90 days. 34.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 61.9% in the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,321 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 505 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 388.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the company's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 72.4% in the 1st quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,810 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 760 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ASTS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Roth Capital initiated coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "buy" rating and a $42.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $47.90 to $45.40 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 target price (up from $36.00) on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, May 5th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $43.73.

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.

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