HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 131,171 Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. $ASTS

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) by 174.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 206,289 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 131,171 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in AST SpaceMobile were worth $4,691,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ASTS. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 61.9% in the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 5.9% in the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 10,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 72.4% in the first quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 15.6% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,525 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of AST SpaceMobile by 388.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ASTS shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, May 5th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 price target (up from $36.00) on shares of AST SpaceMobile in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $45.40 to $42.90 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AST SpaceMobile presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at AST SpaceMobile

In other AST SpaceMobile news, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.84, for a total transaction of $418,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 305,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,107.28. This represents a 3.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Scott Wisniewski sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.65, for a total transaction of $1,782,500.00. Following the sale, the president directly owned 545,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,450,461.75. The trade was a 8.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 129,250 shares of company stock valued at $4,671,650. 34.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AST SpaceMobile Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of AST SpaceMobile stock opened at $45.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 8.23 and a quick ratio of 8.23. AST SpaceMobile, Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.50 and a 1 year high of $60.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $48.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.01. The stock has a market cap of $14.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.85 and a beta of 2.33.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.22). AST SpaceMobile had a negative return on equity of 26.81% and a negative net margin of 7,213.90%.The business had revenue of $1.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.37 million. As a group, research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile, Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.