AST SpaceMobile (ASTS): 61% below its May high, after Rakuten sold half its stake and the CEO raised $199 million without selling

AST SpaceMobile closed at $51.46 on October 12, 2026. That is 37.3% lower than a year earlier, while the S&P 500 rose 19.1%, and 61.3% below the stock’s highest close, $133.09 on May 28, 2026. Counting all three classes of shares, the company is worth about $20 billion.

Only the Class A shares trade. Classes B and C carry votes but no economic rights; each of those shares is paired with a unit of the operating company, AST LLC, that can be exchanged for one Class A share. That is why the market value here uses all 389.2 million shares on the August 2026 quarterly report: 299.8 million Class A, 11.2 million Class B and 78.2 million Class C, the last held by chairman and chief executive Abel Avellan.

A network still being built

The company is building a network of satellites meant to connect directly to ordinary smartphones. In its August 10, 2026 release, the chief executive said the network “has now grown to 13 spacecraft in orbit” and that the company is “preparing to initiate beta services with select strategic partners.” The company says it has more than 60 mobile operator partners and about $1.30 billion of contracted revenue backlog. One satellite was lost this year: on April 19, 2026, BlueBird 7 was placed in a lower than planned orbit by the New Glenn rocket and will be de-orbited; the company expects insurance to cover its cost.

Revenue in 2025 came from gateway equipment and software sold to mobile operators ($44.4 million) and from work for the U.S. government ($26.5 million). Over the last twelve months it adds up to $115.3 million, so the market value is about 174 times revenue. Several losses carry one-off items: 2024 includes a $268.6 million non-cash loss on warrants; the first quarter of 2026 includes the cost of buying back older convertible notes; and the second quarter includes a $125.9 million write-off of BlueBird 7, net of insurance.

Paid for with notes and new shares

Building the network is expensive. AST SpaceMobile spent $1.06 billion on property and equipment in 2025 and $859 million in the first half of 2026. To pay for it, in the twelve months to October 2026 it sold three rounds of convertible notes — $1.15 billion due 2036, $1.075 billion due 2036 and $1.0 billion due 2034 — opened an $800 million program to sell shares on the market, sold shares directly to buy back older notes, and borrowed $420 million from UBS through a subsidiary.

On June 30, 2026 it had $2.29 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $3.02 billion of debt, before the July notes. Class A shares outstanding rose from 269.1 million in August 2025 to 299.8 million in August 2026, an increase of 11.4%. The largest one-day drop of the year, −17.0% on July 16, 2026, came the day after the company announced its latest note offering; another, −15.2% on February 12, 2026, came the day after an earlier one.

The strategic holders sold

Rakuten, a party to the company’s stockholders agreement, sold 15.5 million shares between April 14 and May 5, 2026 — about half of its stake — for roughly $1.26 billion, at an average of $80.99. It disclosed the sales plan with BofA Securities in a Schedule 13D amendment and listed each day’s sales in later amendments. During those 16 trading days the stock fell 35.5% while the S&P 500 rose 5.4%; the filings do not link the two. Hiroshi Mikitani, who controls Rakuten, had left AST SpaceMobile’s board in January, after new share issuances cut Rakuten below the threshold for naming a director.

American Tower sold 2.29 million shares in a block trade with Barclays on December 9, 2025, at $69.75 a share, or $159.6 million, and was left with 0.84%. Vodafone did not sell; its stake fell below 5% only because the share count grew.

Abel Avellan did not sell any shares on the market. Instead, entities he controls entered into two variable prepaid forward contracts with a dealer, each on up to 2.5 million shares. The first, signed in November 2024 and amended in November 2025, brought $42.0 million plus $10.7 million and settles in March 2027, with a floor of $56.06 and a cap of $79.66. The second, signed on June 22, 2026, brought $146.7 million and settles in March 2028, with a floor of $59.58 and a cap of $111.72. In total, about $199 million. Avellan said the second was “for personal financial planning purposes, including to provide liquidity for taxes.” Under the contracts, if the price at settlement is at or below the floor, the full number of shares is delivered; the stock is below both floors today, but settlement is in 2027 and 2028 and can be made in cash.

Executives and directors sold $28.8 million in the twelve months to October 12, 2026. Chief technology officer Huiwen Yao sold $12.7 million, all through a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan; president Scott Wisniewski sold $7.7 million and chief financial officer Andrew Johnson $5.3 million, mostly without a plan. Director Adriana Cisneros bought $0.66 million through accounts of family members and a trust, and director Keith Larson $0.15 million through a 10b5-1 purchase plan.

In September 2026 the board’s compensation committee adopted a severance policy for executives in case of a change of control. None of the company’s filings report an agreement to sell the company.

Funds

Only four of the 38 investment managers this site tracks reported AST SpaceMobile at the end of June, together worth $25.1 million at the June 30 price. Renaissance Technologies opened a $17.1 million position, after holding the stock several times before. Ken Griffin cut his position by 95% and Cliff Asness by 62%; Israel Englander added to a small one. Steve Cohen and Two Sigma sold out. The stock is 42.1% lower than on June 30.

The figures above come from AST SpaceMobile’s filings and the 13F, Form 4, Form 144 and Schedule 13D filings listed below. They describe what happened; they are not a forecast and not investment advice. The company has never paid a dividend. The AST SpaceMobile page on this site has the same data updated daily.