SoundHound AI Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:SOUN)

Key Points

• Investors bought 145,384 call options on SOUN on Friday — a 115% jump above typical daily call volume — and the stock climbed 17.6% to $9.36 on massively higher-than-average trading volume.
• Insiders sold sizable stakes: CEO Keyvan Mohajer sold 124,510 shares and SVP Majid Emami sold 31,019 on March 20, with insiders totaling 307,973 shares sold over the last 90 days while owning 8.84% of the company.
• Analysts are mixed but MarketBeat’s consensus is a Moderate Buy with a $14.93 target; SoundHound reported 59.4% year-over-year revenue growth and EPS in-line at ($0.02) but remains unprofitable with negative net margin and ROE.

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 145,384 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 115% compared to the typical daily volume of 67,482 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SOUN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SoundHound AI from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Friday, January 9th. HC Wainwright dropped their target price on shares of SoundHound AI from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $9.00 target price (down from $11.00) on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $14.00 target price on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $14.93.

Insider Transactions at SoundHound AI

In related news, CEO Keyvan Mohajer sold 124,510 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $845,422.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,073,777 shares in the company, valued at $14,080,945.83. This trade represents a 5.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Majid Emami sold 31,019 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total transaction of $210,619.01. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 501,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,407,398.54. This represents a 5.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 307,973 shares of company stock worth $2,091,110 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.84% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in SoundHound AI by 83.1% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,336 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,060 shares in the last quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its position in SoundHound AI by 152.1% during the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,559 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,544 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in SoundHound AI during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. SHP Wealth Management purchased a new position in SoundHound AI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in SoundHound AI during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 19.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SoundHound AI Stock Up 17.6%

Shares of SOUN stock traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $9.36. 55,384,600 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 26,823,572. SoundHound AI has a 1-year low of $5.83 and a 1-year high of $22.17. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $7.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a PE ratio of -187.98 and a beta of 2.71.

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

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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