AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) was upgraded by investment analysts at Piper Sandler to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on ASTS. New Street Research set a $106.00 price target on AST SpaceMobile in a report on Friday, May 29th. B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group cut their target price on AST SpaceMobile from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.95.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

ASTS opened at $55.01 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 18.37, a current ratio of 18.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $87.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.34. AST SpaceMobile has a fifty-two week low of $36.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.86. The firm has a market cap of $21.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.90 and a beta of 2.69.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by ($0.43). The company had revenue of $14.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.01 million. AST SpaceMobile had a negative net margin of 573.67% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. The business’s revenue was up 1952.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.20) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile will post -1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.37, for a total transaction of $3,854,800.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,348,857.50. The trade was a 53.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Julio A. Torres sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.34, for a total value of $1,145,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 43,239 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,300,865.26. This trade represents a 25.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 105,809 shares of company stock worth $9,748,492 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.89% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,488,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,560,687,000 after buying an additional 1,568,292 shares in the last quarter. Vodafone Ventures Ltd bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the fourth quarter valued at about $397,413,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 44.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,661,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,569,000 after buying an additional 1,425,199 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,522,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,749,000 after buying an additional 402,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,951,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,011,000 after acquiring an additional 350,690 shares during the period. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting AST SpaceMobile

Here are the key news stories impacting AST SpaceMobile this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler initiated coverage on AST SpaceMobile with an Overweight rating, signaling continued analyst confidence in the long-term opportunity. SpaceX, RocketLab rated Neutral, ASTS rated Overweight at Piper Sandler
• Positive Sentiment: The company also reported progress on its satellite network, including regulatory approval in New Zealand, Bell Canada’s completed ground station in Québec, and the arrival of BlueBird 11 ahead of upcoming launches. AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) Secures Global Approvals As Texas Expansion And Launches Near
• Positive Sentiment: Shares may also be getting some short-term technical support as the recent decline has pushed the stock closer to oversold territory, which can sometimes trigger a bounce. AST SpaceMobile stock sinks on double dose of bad news

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.