AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) shares fell roughly 3.5% in after-hours trading Monday after the company’s second-quarter results missed analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings.
The satellite connectivity company reported Q2 revenue of $31.5 million, falling short of the $33.9 million analysts had projected, according to Fiscal.ai.
Despite the miss, revenue grew dramatically compared to just $1.16 million in the same quarter a year ago, reflecting the company’s rapid commercial ramp-up.
Revenue for the quarter was primarily driven by milestone achievements related to U.S. government contracts and gateway deliveries, the company said.
AST SpaceMobile posted a net loss of $230.9 million, or $0.77 per share, far wider than the $0.35 per share loss analysts had anticipated for the period.
That compares to a net loss of $99.4 million, or $0.41 per share, during the same quarter last year, signaling rising costs tied to the company’s aggressive constellation buildout.
Chairman and CEO Abel Avellan highlighted the growing scale of the company’s orbital network in the earnings release, pointing to recent launch activity as a key milestone.
“Following the recent orbital launch of BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13, our space-based cellular broadband network has now grown to 13 spacecraft in orbit, each the largest ever in low Earth orbit, with approximately 20,000 square feet of combined aperture hardware deployed,” Avellan said.
Avellan added that the company is preparing to ship its next batch of satellites while expanding commercial partnerships with select strategic partners for beta services.
“As we get ready to ship BlueBirds 14, 15, and 16 and continue expanding our constellation with production ongoing through BlueBird 46, we are preparing to initiate beta services with select strategic partners,” he said.
AST SpaceMobile reaffirmed its full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $150 million to $200 million, supported by anticipated additional contract awards from the U.S. Government.
The company reiterated in its earnings presentation a target of approximately 45 satellites in orbit by early 2027, underscoring the ambition of its long-term constellation strategy.
Production and assembly are currently ongoing for spacecraft spanning BlueBird 17 through BlueBird 46, representing a substantial pipeline of upcoming launches.
The company’s revenue backlog increased to approximately $1.30 billion, reflecting growing demand from both commercial and government customers.
On the global commercial front, AST SpaceMobile announced partnerships with more than 60 mobile network operators, providing potential access to over 3 billion subscribers worldwide.
Testing and network integration efforts are underway across several European nations, including with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone Ukraine, as well as in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Canada, pending regulatory approvals.
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits surrounding ASTS was described as “extremely bullish” with “extremely high” message volumes following the earnings release, suggesting strong grassroots investor confidence despite the headline miss.
ASTS stock has declined 2.7% year-to-date, underperforming the Tema Space Innovators ETF (NASA), which gained 5% during the same period.
