Short Interest in AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) Declines By 6.9%

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 38,710,000 shares, a drop of 6.9% from the September 30th total of 41,560,000 shares. Currently, 34.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 17,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASTS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $13.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $28.00 to $45.90 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $26.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $22.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.83, for a total transaction of $2,066,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 393,232 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,157,182.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, COO Shanti B. Gupta sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.83, for a total transaction of $2,066,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 393,232 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,157,182.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Adriana Cisneros purchased 4,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $26.32 per share, with a total value of $129,862.88. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 774,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,391,999.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 127,700 shares of company stock worth $3,220,524. 41.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 49.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,663,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,217,531 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the second quarter worth $278,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 150.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 126,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,471,000 after acquiring an additional 76,088 shares during the period. Key Colony Management LLC bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the third quarter worth $3,556,000. Finally, American International Group Inc. increased its position in AST SpaceMobile by 41.5% during the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 56,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,000 after acquiring an additional 16,568 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Down 5.3 %

NASDAQ:ASTS opened at $23.81 on Friday. AST SpaceMobile has a 12 month low of $1.97 and a 12 month high of $39.08. The firm has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.05 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a quick ratio of 6.38, a current ratio of 6.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50 day moving average is $26.91 and its 200-day moving average is $16.61.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $0.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.00 million. Equities analysts anticipate that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.88 EPS for the current 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.