Keith Larson Purchases 625 Shares of AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Director Keith Larson purchased 625 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $80.00 per share, for a total transaction of $50,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,015 shares in the company, valued at $161,200. This trade represents a 44.96% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Up 4.5%

Shares of NASDAQ ASTS opened at $74.68 on Wednesday. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.50 and a 52-week high of $102.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 9.48 and a current ratio of 9.56. The stock has a market cap of $27.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -60.23 and a beta of 2.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $68.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.62.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last announced 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). 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 period in the prior year, the business earned ($1.10) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,668,000 after purchasing an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. acquired a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth approximately $90,129,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 2.7% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,266,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,796,000 after buying an additional 33,259 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 37.8% in the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 843,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,411,000 after buying an additional 231,549 shares during the period. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% in the first 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 last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ASTS shares. Barclays downgraded AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Zacks Research cut AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note 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 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 24th. UBS Group cut 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 report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.66.

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.