AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Stock Price Up 10.3% – Time to Buy?

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) shares traded up 10.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $92.94 and last traded at $92.62. 16,792,035 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 13% from the average session volume of 14,901,304 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.99.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ASTS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, March 27th. Scotiabank lowered AST SpaceMobile from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and set a $45.60 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $43.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of AST SpaceMobile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $63.77.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Up 10.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $35.38 billion, a PE ratio of -70.17 and a beta of 2.80. The company has a current ratio of 16.35, a quick ratio of 16.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The business’s 50-day moving average is $93.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.55.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.08). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 23.02% and a negative net margin of 482.16%.The company had revenue of $54.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.53 million. The business’s revenue was up 2731.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.88, for a total transaction of $3,555,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 4,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $422,180. The trade was a 89.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 30.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vodafone Ventures Ltd purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the fourth quarter valued at about $397,413,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AST SpaceMobile during the 4th quarter worth approximately $198,270,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,351,539 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AST SpaceMobile in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $90,129,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,661,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,425,199 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.