AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Down 9.7% – Should You Sell?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) shares dropped 9.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $77.65 and last traded at $77.3850. Approximately 26,220,713 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 114% from the average daily volume of 12,254,264 shares. The stock had previously closed at $85.67.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $69.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.27. 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 $28.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -62.41 and a beta of 2.76.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). The company had revenue of $14.74 million during 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 company’s revenue was up 1236.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.10) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, CAO Maya Bernal sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.76, for a total transaction of $442,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 122,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,034,567.36. This represents a 4.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.52, for a total transaction of $2,940,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $349,220. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 2,140 shares of company stock valued at $137,236 and sold 2,354,621 shares valued at $164,348,075. 30.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,668,000 after buying an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 3rd quarter worth about $90,129,000. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 803,240 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at about $21,754,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 125.1% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 782,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,382,000 after acquiring an additional 434,615 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

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.