KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Grows Stake in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) by 26.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,600 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,300 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in AST SpaceMobile were worth $1,851,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 25.2% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 2.4% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $759,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 61.9% during the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 5.9% during the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 10,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 72.4% during the first quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 760 shares in the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 20,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total value of $1,049,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 397,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,860,012.80. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total value of $1,623,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares in the company, valued at $192,755. This trade represents a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 41.80% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

NASDAQ:ASTS opened at $82.03 on Monday. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.50 and a 52 week high of $91.41. The company has a quick ratio of 8.23, a current ratio of 8.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.18. The stock has a market cap of $29.41 billion, a PE ratio of -43.40 and a beta of 2.41.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.22). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 26.81% and a negative net margin of 7,213.90%.The firm had revenue of $1.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.37 million. As a group, analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ASTS shares. Barclays lifted their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $37.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Zacks Research raised AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price target (up from $36.00) on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, June 16th. William Blair began coverage on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Thursday, August 21st. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, UBS Group cut AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $62.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AST SpaceMobile has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.27.

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.