SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Trading 5.9% Higher – Should You Buy?

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) shares shot up 5.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $8.78 and last traded at $8.56. 27,899,780 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 27,399,365 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.08.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SOUN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. HC Wainwright decreased their price target on shares of SoundHound AI from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised SoundHound AI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised SoundHound AI from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price objective (down from $11.00) on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Friday, February 27th. One research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, SoundHound AI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.93.

SoundHound AI Stock Up 5.1%

The stock has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of -19.15 and a beta of 2.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.26.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.01). SoundHound AI had a negative return on equity of 40.15% and a negative net margin of 91.84%.The company had revenue of $44.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.06) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 51.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that SoundHound AI, Inc. will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider James Ming Hom 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 sale, the insider owned 772,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,244,351.56. This trade represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 44,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $298,943.33. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,661,121 shares in the company, valued at $11,279,011.59. The trade was a 2.58% 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 valued at $2,091,110 in the last ninety days. 8.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SoundHound AI

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,367,437 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,313,000 after purchasing an additional 1,909,868 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in SoundHound AI by 877.9% during the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 333,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,326,000 after acquiring an additional 299,492 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in SoundHound AI by 252.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 218,868 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,519,000 after acquiring an additional 156,835 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. bought a new stake in SoundHound AI during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $12,944,000. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its position in SoundHound AI by 77.6% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,124,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,059,000 after acquiring an additional 2,676,707 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.28% of the company’s stock.

About SoundHound AI

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.