Key Insights

• Significant control over AST SpaceMobile by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 47% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Recent sales by insiders

If you want to know who really controls AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 48% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions, who own 30% shares weren't spared from last week's US$226m market cap drop, individual investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about AST SpaceMobile.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About AST SpaceMobile?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

We can see that AST SpaceMobile does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of AST SpaceMobile, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in AST SpaceMobile. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Rakuten Group, Inc. with 16% of shares outstanding. With 5.2% and 5.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Antares Technologies Llc and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of AST SpaceMobile

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. in their own names. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$42m of stock. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 48% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over AST SpaceMobile. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 5.2%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 16% of AST SpaceMobile stock. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for AST SpaceMobile (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.