TLDR
- Rakuten’s Hiroshi Mikitani sold ~$154.5M in ASTS stock, with total insider selling hitting ~$274M last quarter
- BlueBird 7 satellite launch was delayed to April 19 from Kennedy Space Center
- Deutsche Bank cut its price target from $139 to $117, citing Amazon’s acquisition of Globalstar
- Short interest hit an eight-month high as traders bet against the stock
- Institutional investors including Vanguard and Invesco continued adding to their positions
AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) has had a rough week. The stock dropped around 6% as a wave of insider selling, a launch delay, and an analyst downgrade hit at the same time.
The biggest headline was Rakuten billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani selling 1.69 million ASTS shares on April 14 at an average price of $91.42, totalling roughly $154.5 million. That alone spooked the market. When you zoom out, insiders sold around 3.08 million shares last quarter, worth approximately $274 million in total. Insider ownership now sits at around 30.9%.
The CTO also made a move. Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 shares on March 23 at $88.88, cutting his position by nearly 90%. That left him holding just 4,750 shares.
BlueBird 7 Launch in Focus
The BlueBird 7 satellite was originally scheduled earlier but got pushed to April 19. It’s set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on Blue Origin’s New Glenn-3 mission, with a window between 6:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. EDT.
The satellite carries a phased-array antenna of roughly 2,400 square feet and is built to deliver direct-to-device broadband to standard smartphones, supporting peak speeds above 120 Mbps with 4G and 5G capability.
A successful launch would be a meaningful milestone for the company’s technology validation. ASTS has agreements with over 50 mobile network operators globally, covering nearly 3 billion combined subscribers. Partners include AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, and Google.
The delay added to investor anxiety. Short interest climbed to an eight-month high as traders positioned defensively heading into the mission.
Analyst Pressure Builds
Deutsche Bank cut its price target from $139 to $117, pointing to competitive pressure after Amazon announced a deal to acquire Globalstar. The move raised concerns about ASTS’s long-term position in the satellite communications market.
Scotiabank went further, downgrading ASTS to “sector underperform” with a $45.60 target. B. Riley cut its target from $105 to $95 with a neutral rating. The stock’s consensus rating now sits at “Reduce” with an average price target of $77.10, well below current trading levels.
Not everyone is bearish. Deutsche Bank still has a $117 target. Jim Cramer spoke positively about the stock on Mad Money. And Barclays raised its target to $65 from $60 after the successful BlueBird 6 launch with ISRO, though it kept an Underweight rating.
On the institutional side, Vanguard increased its stake by 13.4% in Q3 to nearly 20 million shares. Invesco grew its position by over 600%, and VanEck more than doubled its stake. Institutional ownership overall stands at around 61%.
ASTS reported Q4 2025 earnings on March 2, posting revenue of $54.31 million, well ahead of the $39.53 million consensus. EPS came in at -$0.26, missing estimates of -$0.18. The company guided 2026 revenue at $150 million to $200 million.
The stock opened at $85.53 on Friday, sitting between its 50-day moving average of $88.90 and its 200-day moving average of $83.34. The 12-month range runs from $20.26 to $129.89.
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