Overview
- AST SpaceMobile shares closed up 10.66% at $70.68 and then climbed further after an SEC filing showed investor Rakuten had reduced its position.
- Rakuten sold shares at $65.32 to $76.30 and still owns about 5.3% of the company, or roughly 15.5 million shares, after raising about $392.3 million.
- Recent volatility tracks to an April 28 proxy that tied $14.2 million of CEO Abel Avellan’s 2025 pay to execution milestones and marked a February 2026 “satellites in orbit” goal as not achieved.
- An April 22 FCC authorization cleared AST SpaceMobile to operate up to 248 low Earth orbit satellites designed to connect directly to unmodified mobile phones.
- The company reports earnings on May 11, and analysts expect a loss of 21 cents per share on $36.91 million in revenue.