AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $97.49, but opened at $91.05. AST SpaceMobile shares last traded at $90.8380, with a volume of 5,825,132 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ASTS. Scotiabank downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday. Zacks Research downgraded AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays cut AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $62.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $69.33 and a 200-day moving average of $60.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -71.92 and a beta of 2.70. The company has a quick ratio of 9.48, a current ratio of 9.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $14.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.04 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 1,639.59% and a negative return on equity of 27.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1236.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($1.10) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Tower Corp /Ma/ American sold 2,288,621 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.52, for a total value of $2,940,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $349,220. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 2,765 shares of company stock valued at $187,236 and sold 2,354,621 shares valued at $164,348,075. Company insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASTS. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 3,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 30.0% during the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 781 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 22.9% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.