Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Takes $9.01 Million Position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 101,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,012,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 16,350.0% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 329 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. Advocate Investing Services LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Up 1.8%

AST SpaceMobile stock opened at $59.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.00 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.62 and a beta of 2.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 12.90 and a current ratio of 13.05. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.86. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.25.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.77) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.45). The firm had revenue of $31.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 22.88% and a negative net margin of 536.66%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.41) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.37, for a total transaction of $3,854,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,348,857.50. This trade represents a 53.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 45,809 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total transaction of $4,297,342.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 503,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,244,498.39. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 20.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $100.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $93.00 price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.98.

About AST SpaceMobile

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.