AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $103.50, but opened at $109.68. AST SpaceMobile shares last traded at $108.4550, with a volume of 4,842,945 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research note on Tuesday. Scotiabank lowered 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 note on Wednesday, January 7th. Zacks Research cut shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of AST SpaceMobile from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $45.66.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 9.48, a current ratio of 9.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $77.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.82. The stock has a market cap of $41.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -91.59 and a beta of 2.70.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $14.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 posted ($1.10) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Maya Bernal sold 6,000 shares of AST SpaceMobile stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.76, for a total transaction of $442,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 122,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,034,567.36. This trade represents a 4.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 stock was 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 owned 4,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $349,220. This represents a 89.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, 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 insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,919,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,668,000 after acquiring an additional 2,351,539 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth approximately $90,129,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the second quarter worth approximately $21,754,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 125.1% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 782,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,382,000 after purchasing an additional 434,615 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 610.4% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 475,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,222,000 after buying an additional 408,595 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

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.