SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on SoundHound AI from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 5th. HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of SoundHound AI from $18.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. DA Davidson set a $14.00 price objective on shares of SoundHound AI in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded SoundHound AI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised SoundHound AI from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $13.00 to $15.00 in a report on Friday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.07.

SoundHound AI Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SOUN opened at $11.08 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.19 and a beta of 2.65. SoundHound AI has a one year low of $6.52 and a one year high of $22.17. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.57.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.06. SoundHound AI had a negative return on equity of 93.64% and a negative net margin of 211.16%.The firm had revenue of $42.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.48 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.04) earnings per share. SoundHound AI’s revenue for the quarter was up 67.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SoundHound AI will post -0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 73,406 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total transaction of $828,019.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 1,787,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,162,537.52. The trade was a 3.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Keyvan Mohajer sold 144,326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value of $1,627,997.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,198,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,796,677.36. This represents a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 462,265 shares of company stock valued at $5,216,518 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 9.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of SoundHound AI by 37.3% during the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Investors Research Corp grew its position in SoundHound AI by 62.4% in the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 1,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in SoundHound AI by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 706 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of SoundHound AI by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 31,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $513,000 after buying an additional 830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insigneo Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of SoundHound AI by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,000 after acquiring an additional 858 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 19.28% of the company’s stock.

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.