SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Stock Price Up 16.5% – Time to Buy?

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)’s stock price shot up 16.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $8.76 and last traded at $8.56. 31,223,137 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 14% from the average session volume of 27,483,467 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SOUN. DA Davidson set a $14.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Thursday, January 8th. HC Wainwright upped their target price on SoundHound AI from $18.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of SoundHound AI from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $13.00 to $15.00 in a report on Friday, December 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced 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 report on Monday, January 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.07.

SoundHound AI Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.32. The firm has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.19 and a beta of 2.64.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Keyvan Mohajer sold 144,326 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value of $1,627,997.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,198,287 shares in the company, valued at $24,796,677.36. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 60,780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was 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 owned 1,705,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,234,069.44. The trade was a 3.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 462,265 shares of company stock worth $5,216,518. 9.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SoundHound AI

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in SoundHound AI in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Investors Research Corp lifted its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 62.4% during the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 1,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. Financial Consulate Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SoundHound AI during the third quarter worth $32,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in SoundHound AI by 37.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in SoundHound AI by 83.1% in 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.28% of the company’s stock.

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.