Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN)

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 158,395 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 105% compared to the typical volume of 77,261 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SOUN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of SoundHound AI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of SoundHound AI from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. HC Wainwright reduced their price objective on shares of SoundHound AI from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 price target on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price target (down from $11.00) on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Friday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SoundHound AI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.93.

SoundHound AI Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SOUN traded up $0.44 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $9.00. 40,310,991 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,493,682. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.26. The company has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.15 and a beta of 2.58. SoundHound AI has a 12 month low of $5.83 and a 12 month high of $22.17.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $42.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.06) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 51.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that SoundHound AI will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at SoundHound AI

In other news, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 44,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total transaction of $298,943.33. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,661,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,279,011.59. This trade represents a 2.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Keyvan Mohajer sold 124,510 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total transaction of $845,422.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,073,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,080,945.83. The trade was a 5.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 307,973 shares of company stock valued at $2,091,110. Insiders own 8.84% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SoundHound AI

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Verus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SoundHound AI during the first quarter worth $71,000. Amundi raised 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 worth $165,000 after acquiring an additional 12,725 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 25.0% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 440,023 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,023,000 after acquiring an additional 87,998 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 19.6% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 85.7% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 84,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,000 after acquiring an additional 39,028 shares during the period. 19.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.