Financial Contrast: SES (OTCMKTS:SGBAF) vs. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) and SES (OTCMKTS:SGBAF) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for AST SpaceMobile and SES, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AST SpaceMobile	2	5	6	0	2.31
SES	2	1	0	0	1.33

AST SpaceMobile currently has a consensus target price of $86.58, suggesting a potential upside of 40.07%. Given AST SpaceMobile’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe AST SpaceMobile is more favorable than SES.

Profitability

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and SES’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AST SpaceMobile	-536.66%	-22.88%	-10.67%
SES	-8.96%	-9.43%	-1.93%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and SES”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AST SpaceMobile	$115.30 million	208.63	-$341.94 million	($2.14)	-28.88
SES	$2.97 billion	0.99	-$107.48 million	($0.88)	-5.99

SES has higher revenue and earnings than AST SpaceMobile. AST SpaceMobile is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SES, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.0% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.9% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

AST SpaceMobile has a beta of 2.74, meaning that its share price is 174% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SES has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and provides access to a space-based cellular broadband network for smartphones in the United States. Its SpaceMobile service provides cellular broadband services to end-users who are out of terrestrial cellular coverage. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.

About SES

SES S.A. provides satellite-based data transmission capacity and ancillary services worldwide. The company offers content connectivity solutions, including network spanning satellite and ground infrastructure to create, deliver, and manage video and data solutions. It also provides data connectivity services through its fleet of geostationary earth orbit and medium earth orbit satellites to the aviation, cloud, cruise, energy, government, maritime, and telco and mobile network operator industries. In addition, the company offers video services, which includes end-to-end managed services to audience; and provides multi-screen and multi-device viewing experiences on linear channels, video-on-demand, streaming platforms, and social media sites for broadcasters, platform operators, and sports organizations. Further, it provides linear video aggregation and distribution, such as direct-to-home, direct-to-cable, and internet protocol TV households; channel management solutions comprising playout; and live feeds and redundancy features. The company was formerly known as SES Global SA and changed its name to SES S.A. in December 2006. SES S.A. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.