Shanti Gupta Sells 10,000 Shares of AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) COO Shanti Gupta sold 10,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $773,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 382,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,572,882.50. This represents a 2.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

AST SpaceMobile stock traded down $8.05 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $76.70. 19,513,326 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,093,066. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.50 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The company has a current ratio of 9.56, a quick ratio of 9.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $28.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -61.85 and a beta of 2.76. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $70.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.20.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. Rakuten Group Inc. acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter worth approximately $705,398,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 342.2% in the second 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 bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter worth $14,750,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 2nd quarter worth $21,754,000. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 77,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,606,000 after buying an additional 9,448 shares during the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.