AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading Up 21.4% – Time to Buy?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) shares were up 21.4% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $86.95 and last traded at $86.77. Approximately 32,977,994 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 76% from the average daily volume of 18,774,666 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.45.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ASTS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $117.00 to $106.00 in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. New Street Research set a $106.00 price target on AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $85.09.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 18.37 and a current ratio of 18.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.23. The firm has a market cap of $33.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.75 and a beta of 2.70.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by ($0.43). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 24.87% and a negative net margin of 573.67%.The firm had revenue of $14.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.01 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.20) earnings per share. AST SpaceMobile’s revenue was up 1952.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 45,809 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total transaction of $4,297,342.29. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 503,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,244,498.39. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 value of $3,854,800.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,348,857.50. This represents a 53.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,145,809 shares of company stock valued at $280,645,292. Insiders own 20.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,560,687,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,292 shares during the last quarter. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter valued at $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,661,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $338,569,000 after buying an additional 1,425,199 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,749,000 after buying an additional 402,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,951,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $287,011,000 after buying an additional 350,690 shares during the period. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.