AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock Price Down 6.4% Following Insider Selling

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) traded down 6.4% on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $52.20 and last traded at $52.61. 6,740,986 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 11,997,284 shares. The stock had previously closed at $56.20.

Specifically, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $560,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 387,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,699,160. The trade was a 2.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on ASTS shares. 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 raised AST SpaceMobile from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.60 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Barclays downgraded AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AST SpaceMobile has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Down 6.4%

The firm has a market capitalization of $19.31 billion, a P/E ratio of -42.43 and a beta of 2.77. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.77. The company has a quick ratio of 9.48, a current ratio of 9.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its 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). AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 1,639.59% and a negative return on equity of 27.76%. The business had revenue of $14.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.04 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($1.10) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ASTS. Rakuten Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter worth about $705,398,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,668,000 after buying an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $90,129,000. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 843,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,182,000 after buying an additional 803,240 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter valued at $14,750,000. Institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

About AST SpaceMobile

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.