AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading Down 2.1% – Time to Sell?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)’s share price dropped 2.1% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $62.89 and last traded at $65.06. Approximately 8,199,889 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 17,712,814 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.43.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $93.00 target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded AST SpaceMobile from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $50.80 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.98.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 12.90, a current ratio of 13.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.58. The firm has a market cap of $25.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.40 and a beta of 2.75.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.77) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by ($0.45). The company had revenue of $31.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.53 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 22.88% and a negative net margin of 536.66%.During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.41) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,348,857.50. The trade was a 53.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 45,809 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 503,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,244,498.39. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 20.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its position in AST SpaceMobile by 16,350.0% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 329 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Advocate Investing Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. 60.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.