SoundHound AI, Inc. $SOUN Shares Bought by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Key Points

• Rakuten Securities boosted its stake in SoundHound AI by 877.9% in Q4 to 333,605 shares (about $3.33M), making SOUN roughly 1.1% of Rakuten’s portfolio and its 20th-largest holding.
• SoundHound is pushing growth via an announced ~$43M LivePerson acquisition and reported Q4 revenue up 59.4% year-over-year, but the company remains unprofitable and faces mixed sentiment—MarketBeat shows a "Moderate Buy" consensus with a $14.93 target while some analysts and commentators cite valuation and integration risks.

Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN - Free Report) by 877.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 333,605 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 299,492 shares during the period. SoundHound AI makes up approximately 1.1% of Rakuten Securities Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Rakuten Securities Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of SoundHound AI worth $3,326,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SOUN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in SoundHound AI by 16.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,457,569 shares of the company's stock worth $698,798,000 after purchasing an additional 6,132,648 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in SoundHound AI by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,476,348 shares of the company's stock valued at $90,951,000 after purchasing an additional 708,369 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of SoundHound AI by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 5,697,346 shares of the company's stock valued at $91,604,000 after purchasing an additional 672,714 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,181,651 shares of the company's stock worth $51,161,000 after buying an additional 38,966 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 69.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,639,689 shares of the company's stock worth $21,434,000 after buying an additional 1,085,473 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.28% of the company's stock.

SoundHound AI Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SOUN opened at $7.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of -156.37 and a beta of 2.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $7.44 and a 200-day moving average of $10.90. SoundHound AI, Inc. has a one year low of $5.83 and a one year high of $22.17.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.02). The business had revenue of $55.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $53.88 million. SoundHound AI had a negative return on equity of 3.63% and a negative net margin of 8.71%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 59.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.05) EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that SoundHound AI, Inc. will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SOUN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Wednesday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SoundHound AI from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. HC Wainwright cut their price target on shares of SoundHound AI from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and set a $9.00 price objective (down from $11.00) on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a research note on Friday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $14.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Majid Emami sold 31,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $210,619.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 501,826 shares in the company, valued at $3,407,398.54. This trade represents a 5.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 52,968 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $359,652.72. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 1,734,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,193.89. The trade was a 2.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 307,973 shares of company stock worth $2,091,110 over the last three months. Company insiders own 9.17% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting SoundHound AI

Here are the key news stories impacting SoundHound AI this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Announced agreement to acquire LivePerson (~$43M), creating an omnichannel conversational-AI platform that combines SoundHound’s voice/agentic AI with LivePerson’s messaging scale — a strategic move that could materially expand addressable market and cross‑sell opportunities. SoundHound to buy LivePerson to expand conversational AI
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush and other analysts describe the LivePerson deal as strengthening SoundHound’s market position and adding scale/data — a bullish take that supports longer-term growth thesis. SoundHound AI strengthens position with LivePerson acquisition, says Wedbush
• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson reiterated a Buy rating and set a $14 price target (implying significant upside from current levels), giving institutional endorsement of the acquisition-driven story. DA Davidson Reiterates Buy Rating for SoundHound AI NASDAQ: SOUN
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction: Casey’s expanded and renewed use of SoundHound’s AI ordering agents across 2,600+ stores (already >21M guest interactions), evidence of growing real-world deployments and revenue durability. Casey’s Expands Partnership with SoundHound AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Company set to report Q1 results and host a webcast on May 7 — upcoming results and management commentary will be a near-term catalyst for sentiment and could clarify financial impact of the LivePerson deal. SoundHound AI To Report 2026 First Quarter Financial Results
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary highlights a large potential revenue upside (some estimates cite a ~$500M opportunity) but compares SOUN to peers (e.g., Cerence) — useful context but not decisive until integration results are visible. SoundHound vs. Cerence: Which Voice AI Stock Has Stronger Potential?
• Negative Sentiment: Prominent sell-side/media skepticism: Jim Cramer said on TV that “we cannot be in SoundHound,” a high-visibility negative takeaway that can pressure sentiment and trigger short-term selling. Cramer's lightning round: 'We cannot be in SoundHound'
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts/writers urge caution on valuation and integration risks despite strategic logic, creating a mixed market reaction as investors weigh execution risk versus upside. Wedbush has blunt message for SoundHound AI stock investors

SoundHound AI Company Profile

SoundHound AI, Inc is a voice AI and conversational intelligence company specializing in speech recognition, natural language understanding and sound identification technologies. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company initially gained recognition with its music discovery app before pivoting to enterprise-grade voice AI solutions. Over the years, SoundHound AI has built a comprehensive platform that enables developers and businesses to embed conversational intelligence into a wide range of products and services.

The company's core offering is the Houndify voice AI platform, which provides customizable speech-to-meaning technology, domain-specific natural language understanding and text-to-speech capabilities.

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