Ryan Steelberg Buys 148,810 Shares of Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) Stock

Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) CEO Ryan Steelberg acquired 148,810 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $0.85 per share, with a total value of $126,488.50. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 730,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $620,741.40. This trade represents a 25.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Veritone Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of VERI stock opened at $0.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.95. Veritone, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $0.80 and a fifty-two week high of $9.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.40 million, a P/E ratio of -2.29 and a beta of 2.29.

Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.11). Veritone had a negative net margin of 111.90% and a negative return on equity of 159.15%. The firm had revenue of $24.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.29 million.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veritone

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Veritone in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new position in Veritone during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in Veritone during the second quarter valued at $37,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Veritone in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in Veritone in the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. 39.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Veritone to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings raised Veritone from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veritone from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on Veritone in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $2.50 target price on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Veritone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.12.

Veritone Company Profile

Veritone, Inc (NASDAQ: VERI) is a technology company specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for media, legal, government and enterprise applications. Its flagship offering, aiWARE™, is a cloud-based operating system that orchestrates and automates an ecosystem of machine learning models to transform unstructured data—such as audio, video and text—into actionable intelligence. By providing a modular AI environment, Veritone enables organizations to deploy, manage and scale cognitive engines that address diverse use cases from transcription and translation to sentiment analysis and facial recognition.

Through aiWARE and its suite of purpose-built applications, the company delivers turnkey solutions for content licensing, media monitoring, eDiscovery, compliance and public safety.