Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 34,335 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 100% compared to the average volume of 17,134 call options.

Institutional Trading of AST SpaceMobile

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 209.9% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 7,450,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,606,000 after acquiring an additional 5,046,667 shares during the last quarter. Black Maple Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of AST SpaceMobile during the first quarter valued at approximately $87,000. Masters Capital Management LLC bought a new position in AST SpaceMobile in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,900,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in AST SpaceMobile by 71.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 55,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,000 after buying an additional 22,987 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its position in AST SpaceMobile by 62.2% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 55,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,000 after buying an additional 21,430 shares during the last quarter. 60.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of AST SpaceMobile from $7.40 to $12.90 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on AST SpaceMobile from $7.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on AST SpaceMobile from $23.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

AST SpaceMobile Price Performance

Shares of AST SpaceMobile stock opened at $11.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.60 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $6.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.60. The company has a current ratio of 7.51, a quick ratio of 7.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. AST SpaceMobile has a 1-year low of $1.97 and a 1-year high of $12.60.

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $0.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.00 million. On average, equities analysts predict that AST SpaceMobile will post -0.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AST SpaceMobile Company Profile

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.