Investors Purchase High Volume of AST SpaceMobile Call Options (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 102,118 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 24% compared to the average daily volume of 82,099 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AST SpaceMobile news, President Scott Wisniewski sold 2,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.12, for a total transaction of $62,424.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 712,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,476,699.20. This trade represents a 0.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Adriana Cisneros acquired 4,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $26.32 per share, for a total transaction of $129,862.88. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 774,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,391,999.04. This represents a 0.64 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 127,700 shares of company stock worth $3,220,524. Insiders own 41.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AST SpaceMobile

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 49.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,663,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,217,531 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 2nd quarter valued at about $278,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 141.1% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 103,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,716,000 after acquiring an additional 60,530 shares in the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC purchased a new position in AST SpaceMobile during the 3rd quarter valued at about $673,000. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in AST SpaceMobile by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 846,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,125,000 after acquiring an additional 47,600 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. B. Riley boosted their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $26.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $28.00 to $45.90 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $13.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $22.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th.

AST SpaceMobile Trading Down 3.9 %

NASDAQ ASTS opened at $26.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $25.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 6.38 and a current ratio of 6.38. AST SpaceMobile has a 1 year low of $1.97 and a 1 year high of $39.08.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $0.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.00 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.72 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.