SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Trading Up 3.2% – Still a Buy?

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) traded up 3.2% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $7.01 and last traded at $6.68. Approximately 27,348,971 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 0% from the average daily volume of 27,355,463 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised SoundHound AI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of SoundHound AI in a research note on Monday, June 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.93.

SoundHound AI Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $7.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.21 and a beta of 2.56.

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). The business had revenue of $44.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.56 million. SoundHound AI had a negative return on equity of 40.15% and a negative net margin of 91.84%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.06) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SoundHound AI, Inc. will post -0.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SoundHound AI news, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 64,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.46, for a total value of $484,855.24. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 1,669,497 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,454,447.62. This represents a 3.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider James Ming Hom sold 28,843 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.46, for a total transaction of $215,168.78. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 743,521 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,546,666.66. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 268,022 shares of company stock worth $1,999,444 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.84% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of SoundHound AI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in SoundHound AI by 19.6% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 2,277 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 62.1% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 95,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $657,000 after acquiring an additional 36,644 shares during the last quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SoundHound AI in the first quarter worth $71,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 112.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 24,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $165,000 after acquiring an additional 12,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of SoundHound AI by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 440,023 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,023,000 after purchasing an additional 87,998 shares during 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.