Weiss Ratings Reaffirms Sell (D-) Rating for AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS)

Key Points

• Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (D-)" rating for AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS), indicating ongoing concerns about the company's stock performance.
• Despite the negative outlook from Weiss Ratings, some analysts have issued more favorable ratings, with Zacks upgrading to "hold" and Barclays raising the price target from $37.00 to $60.00.
• AST SpaceMobile reported a significant loss with an earnings per share (EPS) of ($0.41), missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) during its most recent earnings announcement.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "sell (d-)" rating reissued by Weiss Ratings in a report released on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of AST SpaceMobile from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $37.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Scotiabank downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector underperform" rating and set a $42.90 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.27.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS stock traded up $6.45 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.20. 43,256,122 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,098,332. AST SpaceMobile has a one year low of $17.50 and a one year high of $91.41. The stock has a market cap of $29.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -42.96 and a beta of 2.41. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.94. The company has a current ratio of 8.23, a quick ratio of 8.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.22). AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 7,213.90% and a negative return on equity of 26.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.37 million. Equities analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total transaction of $1,049,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 397,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,860,012.80. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total transaction of $1,623,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $192,755. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 34.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 21.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,355 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Flagship Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 2.8% in the second quarter. Flagship Private Wealth LLC now owns 9,106 shares of the company's stock valued at $426,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 0.5% in the second quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 56,619 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,646,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 25.2% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,826 shares of the company's stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 367 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 37.0% in the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 1,370 shares of the company's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company's stock.

AST SpaceMobile Company 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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