Satellite-telephone specialist AST SpaceMobile's (ASTS 1.83%) share price disobeyed gravity on Wednesday, rising to close 1.7% higher. That was on the back of a small but encouraging set of preliminary quarterly results released by the company that morning. By contrast, the S&P 500 index fell on the day, slumping 1.4%.
AST's third quarter should be better than the same period of 2022
For its third quarter, the relatively early-stage AST is estimating that the company will post non-GAAP (adjusted) operating expenses of $36.2 million to $38.2 million. That range is below the $38.6 million tally for the line item in the same period a year ago.
Leaving the orbit of guidance for actual numbers, AST said it ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash totaling roughly $135.7 million. As of the close of the period (Sept. 30), it incurred around $224.2 million in capitalized property and equipment costs.
In the press release unveiling these numbers, the highly specialized telecom company also provided a small business update. It said it expects that the first five of its BlueBird commercial satellites should be launched in the first quarter of next year. More encouragingly, AST added that it anticipates closing commercial agreements with both government agencies and cellular-network operators for use of the satellites.
This would begin generating, in 2024, a stream of revenue for the company's core activity -- always a welcome development. AST did not, however, provide any estimates for how much this might bring in over the year.
Fuller results are coming
Those small nuggets of information were sufficient to provide the market with cautious optimism over AST's business. We'll get a fuller picture when audited Q3 results are made public and discussed by management; this is slated to happen in a conference call after market close on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
