Critical Comparison: AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) and Its Competitors

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is one of 203 publicly-traded companies in the “Diversified Telecommunication Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare AST SpaceMobile to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AST SpaceMobile	-536.66%	-22.88%	-10.67%
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	-11.92%	-217.42%	-3.37%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for AST SpaceMobile and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AST SpaceMobile	2	6	6	0	2.29
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	1749	5336	7751	383	2.44

AST SpaceMobile currently has a consensus target price of $80.67, suggesting a potential upside of 96.90%. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies have a potential upside of 20.48%. Given AST SpaceMobile’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AST SpaceMobile is more favorable than its rivals.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.0% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 20.9% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

AST SpaceMobile has a beta of 2.72, meaning that its share price is 172% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AST SpaceMobile’s rivals have a beta of -4.77, meaning that their average share price is 577% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
AST SpaceMobile	$70.92 million	-$341.94 million	-19.14
AST SpaceMobile Competitors	$24.15 billion	$893.66 million	-166.20

AST SpaceMobile’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than AST SpaceMobile. AST SpaceMobile is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

AST SpaceMobile rivals beat AST SpaceMobile on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

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.