Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) versus AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) Head-To-Head Contrast

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) and Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.0% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of Juniper Networks shares are owned by institutional investors. 34.2% of AST SpaceMobile shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Juniper Networks shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and Juniper Networks”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AST SpaceMobile	$4.42 million	4,113.65	-$300.08 million	($1.99)	-28.87
Juniper Networks	$5.20 billion	2.57	$287.90 million	$1.05	38.05

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

Volatility & Risk

AST SpaceMobile has a beta of 2.27, meaning that its share price is 127% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Juniper Networks has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares AST SpaceMobile and Juniper Networks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AST SpaceMobile	-7,033.22%	-23.56%	-13.79%
Juniper Networks	6.78%	8.71%	4.18%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for AST SpaceMobile and Juniper Networks, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AST SpaceMobile	0	3	5	0	2.63
Juniper Networks	0	5	1	0	2.17

AST SpaceMobile presently has a consensus target price of $45.34, suggesting a potential downside of 21.07%. Juniper Networks has a consensus target price of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.13%. Given Juniper Networks’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Juniper Networks is more favorable than AST SpaceMobile.

Summary

Juniper Networks beats AST SpaceMobile on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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 Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers. It also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches; and juniper access points, which provide Wi-Fi access and performance. In addition, the company offers security products comprising SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP. Further, it offers Junos OS, a network operating system; Contrail networking, which provides an open-source and standards-based platform for SDN; Mist AI-driven Wired, Wireless, and WAN assurance solutions to set and measure key metrics; Mist AI-driven Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which identifies the root cause of issues; Juniper Paragon Automation, a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications; and Juniper Apstra to automate the network lifecycle in a single system. Additionally, the company provides software-as-a-service, technical support, maintenance, and professional services, as well as education and training programs. It sells its products through direct sales, distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturers to end-users in the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.