AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Receives $45.66 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.6571.

ASTS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays cut AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.75, for a total transaction of $159,631,314.75. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 211,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,743,685.25. This trade represents a 91.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $773,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 382,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,572,882.50. This represents a 2.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 2,765 shares of company stock valued at $187,236 and sold 2,354,621 shares valued at $164,348,075. 30.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,668,000 after buying an additional 2,351,539 shares during the period. Clear Street Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth $90,129,000. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 1,992.5% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 843,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,182,000 after acquiring an additional 803,240 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 2nd quarter worth $21,754,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 125.1% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 782,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,382,000 after purchasing an additional 434,615 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ ASTS opened at $98.39 on Friday. AST SpaceMobile has a fifty-two week low of $17.50 and a fifty-two week high of $102.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -79.35 and a beta of 2.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 9.56 and a quick ratio of 9.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.21.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $14.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.04 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 27.76% and a negative net margin of 1,639.59%.AST SpaceMobile’s revenue was up 1236.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.10) EPS. On average, analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

About AST SpaceMobile

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.