BlackRock Inc. Invests $9 Million in Veritone, Inc. $VERI

Key Points

• BlackRock acquired a new 7.07% stake in Veritone, purchasing 6.57 million shares valued at approximately $9 million. Other institutions, including Vanguard and Marshall Wace, also increased their positions.
• Veritone’s CEO bought 148,810 shares at $0.85 each, increasing his ownership by 25.59%; insiders now own 7.37% of the company.
• The stock opened at $0.91 amid continued financial weakness: quarterly revenue of $24.26 million missed estimates, while the company reported a negative net margin of 111.90%. Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating and a $6.12 target price.

BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 6,571,445 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,003,000. BlackRock Inc. owned approximately 7.07% of Veritone as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veritone by 4.2% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 480,842 shares of the company's stock valued at $606,000 after purchasing an additional 19,597 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Veritone by 63.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,754,165 shares of the company's stock worth $13,275,000 after buying an additional 1,065,460 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Veritone during the 3rd quarter valued at about $82,000. Franklin Resources Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veritone during the third quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Veritone by 16,314.3% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,676,397 shares of the company's stock worth $8,080,000 after purchasing an additional 1,666,184 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 39.18% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Veritone

In other news, CEO Ryan Steelberg acquired 148,810 shares of Veritone stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $0.85 per share, for a total transaction of $126,488.50. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 730,284 shares of the company's stock, valued at $620,741.40. This trade represents a 25.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 7.37% of the company's stock.

Veritone Stock Performance

Shares of VERI opened at $0.91 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.06 million, a PE ratio of -2.39 and a beta of 2.26. Veritone, Inc. has a 1 year low of $0.76 and a 1 year high of $9.42. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $1.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.83.

Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.11). The business had revenue of $24.26 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.29 million. Veritone had a negative net margin of 111.90% and a negative return on equity of 159.15%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VERI. UBS Group started coverage on Veritone in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They set a "neutral" rating and a $2.50 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut Veritone from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (e+)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Veritone to $5.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Veritone from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $6.12.

Veritone Profile

Veritone, Inc NASDAQ: VERI is a technology company specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for media, legal, government and enterprise applications. Its flagship offering, aiWARE™, is a cloud-based operating system that orchestrates and automates an ecosystem of machine learning models to transform unstructured data—such as audio, video and text—into actionable intelligence. By providing a modular AI environment, Veritone enables organizations to deploy, manage and scale cognitive engines that address diverse use cases from transcription and translation to sentiment analysis and facial recognition.

Through aiWARE and its suite of purpose-built applications, the company delivers turnkey solutions for content licensing, media monitoring, eDiscovery, compliance and public safety.

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