Shares of AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) ended a two-day losing streak on Tuesday after regulatory filings revealed that senior executives held onto their stock following the vesting of restricted stock units.
New filings showed that CEO Abel Avellan, President Scott Wisniewski, CFO Andrew Johnson, and Chief Accounting Officer Maya Bernal each reported transactions tied to RSU vesting on May 30, with none of the transactions constituting open-market sales.
Shares were instead withheld from each executive solely to satisfy tax obligations associated with their vested awards, a standard practice that does not reflect a decision to exit positions.
Avellan reported the withholding of 32,754 shares following the vesting of 83,333 RSUs, while retaining 78.5 million Class A shares and 78.2 million exchangeable ASTS common units.
Wisniewski and Johnson each reported the withholding of 16,377 shares after 41,666 RSUs vested, resulting in net vested awards of 25,289 shares apiece.
Bernal reported the withholding of 2,621 shares after 6,666 RSUs vested, leaving her with a net vested award of 4,045 shares.
The filings landed as investors continue to monitor Blue Origin’s recovery following last week’s New Glenn launchpad explosion at Cape Canaveral, an incident that has drawn significant attention from ASTS shareholders.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said several critical pieces of infrastructure survived the blast, including the propellant farm and liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, and LNG storage systems, adding that the damaged support tower can be repaired and that New Glenn is expected to return to flight before year’s end.
The recovery timeline carries particular weight for ASTS investors after New Glenn’s third mission last month suffered an upper-stage anomaly that resulted in the loss of AST’s BlueBird 7 satellite.
Despite that setback, AST SpaceMobile confirmed that BlueBird satellites 8, 9, and 10 had arrived at Cape Canaveral and entered final processing ahead of a Falcon 9 mission expected in mid-June.
CEO Abel Avellan recently told CNBC that AST remains “on target” to deploy 45 satellites this year, with launches expected roughly once a month.
President Scott Wisniewski added that the company expects “a handful” of launches from both Blue Origin and SpaceX, or equivalent providers, and believes AST has sufficient launch capacity to support its deployment roadmap.
AST maintains launch agreements with multiple providers and has repeatedly stressed it is not reliant on any single partner, with New Glenn intended to complement rather than replace Falcon 9 missions.
Broader sector sentiment is also being shaped by the anticipated SpaceX IPO, which could reportedly value the company at between $1.75 trillion and $1.8 trillion, based on a potential total addressable market spanning launch services, Starlink connectivity, and artificial intelligence that SpaceX has outlined at $28.5 trillion.
Investor enthusiasm has cooled in recent sessions, however, as Morningstar estimated SpaceX’s fair value at $780 billion and described the shares as appearing “overvalued,” raising questions about how much upside remains at the proposed valuation.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ASTS slipped to “bullish” from “extremely bullish” levels recorded the prior day, coinciding with a 27% decline in 24-hour message volumes.
One Stocktwits user noted, “Most of the time, LIKE THIS TIME, the insiders we know of have chosen to keep their vested shares and not sell additional on top of the tax liability.”
Another user pointed to Avellan’s retained position as a bullish signal, observing that he “has still never sold a single share.”
ASTS stock has gained 389% over the past year, with Monday’s session alone delivering a 12% surge that made it the top-performing space stock of the day.
