New York, January 9, 2026, 12:13 EST — Regular session
- AST SpaceMobile shares rose about 11% in midday trading.
- Bank of America lifted its price target to $100 from $85.
- Traders are weighing bullish and bearish analyst calls ahead of the next results update.
AST SpaceMobile shares rose about 11% to $100.66 on Friday, paring part of a sharp, two-day slide and climb that has kept the stock on traders’ screens. Bank of America Securities analyst Michael Funk raised his price target on the satellite-to-cellular company to $100 from $85, according to a note cited by Moomoo.
The move matters because AST has become a high-volatility proxy for the “direct-to-cell” idea — using satellites to connect ordinary phones without special hardware — at a time when big banks are trying to pin down what that market is worth. In its 2026 outlook, BofA said it expects growing interest in LEO, or low-Earth orbit, satellite providers this year. TipRanks
That upbeat tilt runs into a fresh bear case. Scotiabank analyst Andres Coello cut AST SpaceMobile to underperform and set a $45.60 target, arguing the company still faces heavy execution risk as it works toward continuous service that may require roughly 50 satellites, and as early user adoption and ARPU — average revenue per user — remain limited. He also flagged “capex,” or capital spending, as a key pressure point as the buildout ramps. Investing.com
AST’s swings this week have been steep even by its standards. The stock fell 12% to $85.73 on Wednesday after the Scotiabank call, Barron’s reported, after a roughly 304% run over the prior 12 months that left valuation as the main fault line. The same report cited FactSet estimates putting the stock at more than 100 times forecast 2026 sales.
The bounce on Friday came as other satellite- and communications-linked names traded higher too. Iridium Communications rose about 2.5%, Globalstar gained about 3.1% and Viasat added about 3.8% in midday trading.
But the downside case has not gone away. Scotiabank’s note said the share price had “once again overshoot” to “irrational levels” and argued it “cannot remember a single time when the company got timing right,” a reminder that delays or softer-than-hoped uptake could force another reset. TipRanks
The next hard date traders are circling is the company’s next quarterly report, which Zacks lists for March 2, 2026, with analysts expecting a loss of about 17 cents per share. Beyond that, investors will be looking for any change in the spending curve and the timetable for scaling service — the two points at the center of this week’s tug-of-war.
Related articles: NASDAQ:ASTS
