Insider Selling: AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) CTO Sells 55,000 Shares of Stock

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) CTO Huiwen Yao sold 55,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.82, for a total value of $1,475,100.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Down 7.7%

Shares of ASTS traded down $2.05 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $24.61. The stock had a trading volume of 17,419,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,596,871. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 1 year low of $4.00 and a 1 year high of $39.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 5.80 and a quick ratio of 5.80. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $24.39 and its 200 day moving average is $24.51. The firm has a market cap of $7.79 billion, a PE ratio of -11.61 and a beta of 2.05.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $0.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.85 million. As a group, analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rakuten Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the first quarter valued at $705,398,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 49.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,987,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,233,000 after buying an additional 4,955,941 shares during the period. Alphabet Inc. bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter worth about $203,375,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,496,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,801,000 after acquiring an additional 229,759 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,523,000. Institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ASTS. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $47.90 to $45.40 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, May 5th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Roth Capital began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.40.

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.