SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) Shares Down 2.7% Following Insider Selling

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)’s stock price fell 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $10.29 and last traded at $10.41. 20,408,017 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 43,207,410 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.70.

Specifically, CTO Timothy Stonehocker sold 31,329 shares of SoundHound AI stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value of $353,391.12. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 575,976 shares in the company, valued at $6,497,009.28. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Michael Zagorsek sold 73,406 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In related news, CFO Nitesh Sharan sold 60,780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total value of $685,598.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,705,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,234,069.44. This trade represents a 3.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on SOUN shares. HC Wainwright upped their price target on SoundHound AI from $18.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded SoundHound AI from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $13.00 to $15.00 in a report on Friday, December 12th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of SoundHound AI in a report on Thursday, September 11th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of SoundHound AI in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of SoundHound AI from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SoundHound AI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.07.

SoundHound AI Stock Down 0.7%

The firm has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.87 and a beta of 2.63. The company has a 50 day moving average of $13.04 and a 200 day moving average of $13.48.

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

Institutional Trading of SoundHound AI

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in SoundHound AI by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,457,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $698,798,000 after acquiring an additional 6,132,648 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of SoundHound AI by 84.2% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 4,973,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,390,000 after purchasing an additional 2,274,105 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in SoundHound AI in the third quarter worth about $21,679,000. HRT Financial LP acquired a new position in SoundHound AI in the second quarter worth about $11,914,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in SoundHound AI by 69.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,639,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,434,000 after buying an additional 1,085,473 shares during 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.