SoundHound AI Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:SOUN)

Key Points

• SoundHound AI experienced a significant increase in options trading, with 214,813 call options bought, marking a 33% rise compared to typical volume.
• Insider trading reports show that CFO Nitesh Sharan and COO Michael Zagorsek sold a combined total of 196,433 shares on September 22, resulting in ownership decreases of 6.58% and 3.62%, respectively.
• Institutional investors have increased their holdings in SoundHound AI, with companies like Northwestern Mutual raising their stake by 83.1% in the 2nd quarter alone.

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 214,813 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 33% compared to the typical daily volume of 162,111 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at SoundHound AI

In other news, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 126,596 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.58, for a total transaction of $2,098,961.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,796,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,782,720.32. The trade was a 6.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 69,837 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total value of $1,117,392.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 1,860,790 shares in the company, valued at $29,772,640. This trade represents a 3.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 495,196 shares of company stock valued at $8,068,135. 9.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SOUN. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in SoundHound AI by 83.1% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,336 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,060 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 68.4% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,519 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 1,023 shares during the last quarter. Investors Research Corp increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 62.4% during the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 1,822 shares of the company's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SoundHound AI during the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 48.8% during the 2nd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,050 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. 19.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SoundHound AI Stock Performance

SOUN stock traded up $0.43 on Wednesday, reaching $18.63. The company had a trading volume of 83,125,336 shares, compared to its average volume of 46,464,949. SoundHound AI has a 1 year low of $4.56 and a 1 year high of $24.98. The company's fifty day moving average is $14.32 and its 200 day moving average is $11.42. The company has a market cap of $7.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.43 and a beta of 2.60.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.13). SoundHound AI had a negative net margin of 171.81% and a negative return on equity of 73.13%. The company had revenue of $42.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $32.88 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.11) EPS. SoundHound AI's quarterly revenue was up 216.3% compared to the same quarter last year. SoundHound AI has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that SoundHound AI will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SOUN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities raised SoundHound AI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $14.50 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Monday, July 14th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on SoundHound AI in a report on Thursday, September 11th. They issued a "market perform" rating on the stock. Northland Capmk raised SoundHound AI from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Saturday, September 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $14.36.

About SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI, Inc develops independent voice artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that enables businesses across automotive, TV, and IoT, and to customer service industries to deliver high-quality conversational experiences to their customers. Its products include Houndify platform that offers a suite of Houndify tools to help brands build conversational voice assistants, such as Application Programming Interfaces (API) for text and voice queries, support for custom commands, extensive library of content domains, inclusive software development kit platforms, collaboration capabilities, diagnostic tools, and built-in analytics; SoundHound Chat AI that integrates with knowledge domains, pulling real-time data like weather, sports, stocks, flight status, and restaurants; and SoundHound Smart Answering is built to offer customer establishments custom AI-powered voice assistant.

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