SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Shares Down 1.4% – Here’s Why

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) shares traded down 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $6.84 and last traded at $6.90. 25,892,949 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 6% from the average session volume of 27,481,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.00.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SOUN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded SoundHound AI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. HC Wainwright lowered their target price on SoundHound AI from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 target price 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 research note on Friday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.93.

SoundHound AI Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.68 and a beta of 2.56.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $44.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.06) earnings per share. SoundHound AI’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SoundHound AI, Inc. will post -0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at SoundHound AI

In related news, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 52,968 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $359,652.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,734,491 shares in the company, valued at $11,777,193.89. This trade represents a 2.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Majid Emami sold 31,019 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total transaction of $210,619.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 501,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,407,398.54. This represents a 5.82% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days. 8.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in SoundHound AI by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,367,437 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,313,000 after acquiring an additional 1,909,868 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in SoundHound AI by 877.9% in the fourth 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 during the period. Clear Street Group Inc. purchased a new stake in SoundHound AI in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $12,944,000. UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 77.6% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,124,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,059,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676,707 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 140.5% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 266,576 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 155,743 shares in the last quarter. 19.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.