Stephens Inc. AR Buys New Stake in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

Stephens Inc. AR bought a new stake in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 10,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rakuten Group Inc. purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $705,398,000. Alphabet Inc. purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $203,375,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings 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 last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in 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. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the first quarter valued at $14,750,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

Shares of ASTS opened at $73.70 on Friday. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.50 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The company has a market capitalization of $26.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.99 and a beta of 2.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 8.23 and a current ratio of 8.23.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on ASTS. Barclays downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 17th. William Blair began coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Friday. UBS Group downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $42.90 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $45.27.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Andrew Martin Johnson sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.48, for a total value of $1,049,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 397,485 shares in the company, valued at $20,860,012.80. This trade represents a 4.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.58, for a total transaction of $1,623,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,755. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 34.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

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.