AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock Price Up 14% – Here’s What Happened

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) rose 14% on Monday . The company traded as high as $87.03 and last traded at $86.48. Approximately 18,294,156 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 50% from the average daily volume of 12,171,176 shares. The stock had previously closed at $75.84.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 14.0%

The company has a quick ratio of 9.48, a current ratio of 9.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $31.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.74 and a beta of 2.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $69.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.50.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 27.76% and a negative net margin of 1,639.59%.The firm had revenue of $14.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($1.10) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CAO Maya Bernal sold 6,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.76, for a total value of $442,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 122,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,034,567.36. The trade was a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.52, for a total value of $2,940,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares in the company, valued at $349,220. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 2,140 shares of company stock valued at $137,236 and have sold 2,354,621 shares valued at $164,348,075. 30.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASTS. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 342.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 132,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,172,000 after purchasing an additional 102,217 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter valued at about $14,750,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the second quarter valued at about $21,754,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 14.0% in the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 77,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,606,000 after buying an additional 9,448 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sender Co & Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.8% in the first quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. now owns 295,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,717,000 after acquiring an additional 91,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

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.