AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) shares slid 6% on Tuesday, closing at $55.80, their lowest level in more than a month amid broader market pressure.
Despite the sell-off, a newly disclosed insider purchase signaled a potential vote of confidence from within the company’s own boardroom.
Director Adriana Cisneros disclosed open-market purchases totaling 10,822 shares worth approximately $619,200, according to fresh regulatory filings released late Tuesday.
The shares were purchased on Monday at prices ranging from $57 to $58.87 through accounts belonging to Cisneros’ spouse and adult child, as well as an investment entity linked to a trust of which she is a beneficiary.
Cisneros reported indirect beneficial ownership of 797,023 shares in ASTS following the completion of those transactions.
The insider buying follows the full deployment of BlueBird satellites 12 and 13, along with the opening of a new satellite gateway in New Zealand.
Launched alongside BlueBird 11 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 last month, the next-generation satellites carry 2,400-square-foot communications arrays capable of delivering voice, data, and text directly to standard smartphones.
The BlueBird satellites are expected to support peak speeds approaching 200 Mbps, nearly double the 98.9 Mbps the company had previously demonstrated.
BlueBird 14 is complete, while BlueBirds 15 and 16 are nearing completion, with production advancing through BlueBird 48 as the company targets 45 satellites in orbit by early 2027.
AST SpaceMobile is also targeting a manufacturing cadence of six satellites per month as it works to scale its commercial constellation rapidly.
On the commercial front, US Mobile plans to introduce AST SpaceMobile-powered coverage on Warp, its Verizon-based network, during the fourth quarter of 2026.
“On direct-to-cell specifically, AST SpaceMobile is coming to Warp and is currently slated for Q4,” US Mobile CEO Ahmed Khattak said recently on Reddit.
Verizon, an investor and commercial partner in AST SpaceMobile, adds further weight to the company’s growing list of carrier relationships supporting its direct-to-cell ambitions.
Japan’s Radio Regulatory Council recently endorsed a framework for 700 MHz satellite-to-phone communications that specifically identifies AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird system by name.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications rejected a request to replace the BlueBird name with broader language, noting that the standards were based on spectrum-sharing studies using BlueBird’s radio specifications.
Rakuten plans to establish an equally owned satellite venture with AST SpaceMobile in 2026, begin a phased rollout late this year, and target nationwide Japanese coverage in fiscal 2027.
BlueBird’s compatibility with Rakuten’s 700 MHz spectrum is central to the effort to compete with Starlink-backed services offered by Japan’s larger wireless carriers.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ASTS was “bearish” amid a 14% rise in 24-hour message volumes, though some users expressed enthusiasm for the insider activity.
One user said, “$ASTS I gotta have more insiders-buying-shares wedge. You’re gonna want to own those ASTS shares,” while another added, “$ASTS Adriana buys more, I buy more.”
ASTS stock has risen 14% over the past year despite Tuesday’s pullback to one-month lows.
