AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Trading Down 9.7% – Time to Sell?

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) were down 9.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $77.65 and last traded at $77.3850. Approximately 26,220,713 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 114% from the average daily volume of 12,254,264 shares. The stock had previously closed at $85.67.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ASTS shares. Scotiabank upgraded AST SpaceMobile from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.60 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 24th. UBS Group lowered shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday. Finally, Barclays cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AST SpaceMobile currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Down 9.7%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 9.48 and a current ratio of 9.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.27. The firm has a market cap of $28.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -62.41 and a beta of 2.76.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). The company had revenue of $14.74 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.04 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 1,639.59% and a negative return on equity of 27.76%. AST SpaceMobile’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($1.10) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.75, for a total transaction of $159,631,314.75. Following the transaction, the insider owned 211,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.52, for a total value of $2,940,800.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $349,220. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 2,140 shares of company stock valued at $137,236 and sold 2,354,621 shares valued at $164,348,075. 30.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 342.2% in the second quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 132,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,172,000 after buying an additional 102,217 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,754,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 14.0% during the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 77,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,606,000 after acquiring an additional 9,448 shares in the last quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.8% during the 1st quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. now owns 295,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,717,000 after acquiring an additional 91,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in AST SpaceMobile by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 28,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,339,000 after acquiring an additional 5,239 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

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.