SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Stock Price Up 6.6% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Shares rose 6.6% intraday (touched $12.31, last $11.75) on Friday with ~39.1M shares traded, about 38% above the average daily volume.
• SoundHound's latest quarter beat expectations (EPS -$0.03 vs. -$0.09; revenue $42.05M, +67.6% YoY) but the company remains unprofitable with a negative net margin (~-211%) and negative return on equity.
• Market sentiment is mixed: the consensus is a “Moderate Buy” with an average target of $16.07, while insiders have sold roughly 492,965 shares in the past 90 days even as institutions (notably Vanguard) hold about 19.3% of the stock.

Shares of SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) rose 6.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $12.31 and last traded at $11.75. Approximately 39,119,564 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 38% from the average daily volume of 28,422,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.02.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on SOUN. Oppenheimer began coverage on SoundHound AI in a report on Thursday, September 11th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised SoundHound AI to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of SoundHound AI from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SoundHound AI currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $16.07.

SoundHound AI Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $12.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.99 and a beta of 2.65.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.06. SoundHound AI had a negative return on equity of 93.64% and a negative net margin of 211.16%.The firm had revenue of $42.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $40.48 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.04) EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 67.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that SoundHound AI, Inc. will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Majid Emami sold 32,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.66, for a total value of $349,019.06. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 532,845 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,680,127.70. This trade represents a 5.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 60,780 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value of $685,598.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,705,148 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,234,069.44. This trade represents a 3.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 492,965 shares of company stock worth $6,140,981. 9.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SoundHound AI

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SOUN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,457,569 shares of the company's stock worth $698,798,000 after acquiring an additional 6,132,648 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in SoundHound AI by 8.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,830,144 shares of the company's stock valued at $94,759,000 after acquiring an additional 679,436 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in SoundHound AI by 9.1% during the second 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. lifted its stake in SoundHound AI by 13.4% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 5,697,346 shares of the company's stock worth $91,604,000 after purchasing an additional 672,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings 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 valued at $51,161,000 after purchasing an additional 38,966 shares in the last quarter. 19.28% of the stock is owned by institutional 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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