Market Reaction to Software Stocks Plummeting
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 4 days ago
0mins
Should l Buy SOUN?
Source: NASDAQ.COM
- Software Stock Decline: As of April 27, Atlassian's stock has dropped 58% over six months, C3.ai down 52%, and SoundHound AI down 55%, reflecting market fears that all-in-one AI platforms will render traditional software obsolete.
- Market Overreaction: While the consensus suggests generative AI will commoditize the software industry, analysts argue this perspective is overly pessimistic, as the fundamentals of these companies remain intact, with current stock prices reflecting shifts in market sentiment rather than actual declines in business value.
- Investor Fund Rotation: Amidst the allure of AI infrastructure, Micron Technology and Intel saw stock gains of 154% and 130% respectively, while SaaS valuations plummeted, indicating investor anxiety over potential threats from AI.
- Value Investment Opportunity: Despite the market's pessimism towards these software companies, this situation presents investors with a chance to acquire high-quality SaaS stocks at discounted prices, with analysts recommending a reassessment of these undervalued growth stories.
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Analyst Views on SOUN
Wall Street analysts forecast SOUN stock price to rise
7 Analyst Rating
5 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 7.960
Low
11.00
Averages
16.60
High
26.00
Current: 7.960
Low
11.00
Averages
16.60
High
26.00
About SOUN
SoundHound AI, Inc. is engaged in conversational intelligence, offering voice and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that let businesses offer experiences to their customers. Through its proprietary technology, its voice AI delivers speed and accuracy in numerous languages to product creators and service providers across retail, financial services, healthcare, automotive, smart devices, and restaurants via AI-driven products, such as Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive Thru, and Amelia AI Agents. Along with SoundHound Chat AI, a voice assistant with integrated Generative AI, it powers various products and services, and processes billions of interactions each year for businesses. Its developer platform, Houndify, is an open-access platform that allows developers to leverage its Voice AI technology and a library of over 100 content domains, including commonly used domains for points of interest, weather, flight status, sports and more.
About the author

Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
- Earnings Expectations: According to Fiscal.ai data, Wall Street anticipates SoundHound AI to report a loss of $0.01 per share in Q1, narrowing from a loss of $0.09 per share a year ago, indicating an improvement in the company's financial outlook.
- Revenue Surge: Analysts expect the company to achieve a 40% year-on-year revenue increase to $42.56 million in Q1, which will lay a solid foundation for future profitability and growth.
- Stock Performance: Despite SoundHound AI's stock crossing the 200-day moving average only once in 2026, shares rose nearly 16% by the end of April, reflecting market optimism ahead of the earnings report.
- Strategic Expansion: Last month, SoundHound AI announced an expansion of its partnership with Casey’s, enabling the convenience retailer and pizza chain to automatically answer customer calls, which is expected to enhance customer service efficiency and drive future revenue growth.
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- Market Performance Outlook: SoundHound AI's stock currently trades at approximately $8.15, with Wall Street analysts setting an average 12-month price target of $14.62 and a high of $20, indicating strong potential for the stock to double within the next year.
- Technological Innovation Application: By integrating generative AI and audio recognition, SoundHound AI is widely deployed in the retail sector for automating order-taking, providing a solid revenue base for further investments despite the market's relatively small size.
- Customer Service Automation Prospects: If SoundHound AI successfully automates customer service centers, it could tap into significant market opportunities across industries like insurance, healthcare, and finance, having already signed contracts with clients in these sectors, indicating the potential of its services.
- Financial Performance and Valuation: The company reported a revenue growth rate of 59% in Q4 2025, with a current price-to-sales ratio of 20, which, while not cheap, is significantly lower than its historical peak of 111, making it a strong candidate for doubling in value over the next year given its rapid growth and reasonable valuation.
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- Price Recovery: SoundHound AI's shares surged 17% at 2 p.m. ET, revisiting late January price levels, indicating strong investor anticipation for the upcoming earnings report and reflecting confidence in future growth prospects.
- Market Attention: Twilio's robust earnings report has drawn investor focus to the voice AI sector, with Twilio's voice revenues rising 20% year-over-year, suggesting strong demand in the voice AI market, which positively signals SoundHound AI's business outlook.
- Contract Backlog: Although SoundHound AI is currently unprofitable, its backlog of long-term contracts is generating actual revenue, with sales doubling in fiscal year 2025, laying a foundation for future profitability and attracting investor interest.
- Earnings Expectations: Next week's earnings report is expected to reveal an increase in new contracts and further revenue growth, enhancing investor confidence in the company's progress toward profitable operations, which may drive the stock price higher.
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- Acquisition-Driven Growth: SoundHound AI has expanded its business through acquisitions, notably acquiring Amelia AI for $80 million in 2024, which significantly broadened its customer base; however, this growth does not accurately reflect its true organic growth rate.
- Lack of Profitability: Despite achieving nearly 60% quarterly growth in 2025, SoundHound AI reported a net loss exceeding $14 million, and adjustments for contingent acquisition liabilities made its financials appear better than they truly are, indicating persistent challenges in achieving profitability.
- Significant Stock Volatility: The stock has declined approximately 64% from its 52-week high and is down 19% year-to-date, reflecting market concerns about the sustainability of its growth, leading investors to adopt a cautious stance regarding its future performance.
- Uncertain Future Outlook: The company is set to report its Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings on May 7, which will be a critical moment for demonstrating its growth trajectory; failure to show significant improvement in profitability may further undermine investor confidence.
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- Fluctuating Growth Rates: SoundHound AI reported nearly 60% growth in the last quarter of 2025, yet its overall growth has been inconsistent, indicating a reliance on acquisitions rather than organic growth, which raises investor concerns about its future performance.
- Impact of Acquisition Strategy: The company has expanded its customer base through acquisitions like Amelia AI for $80 million and plans to acquire LivePerson for $43 million; however, while these deals boost revenue, they obscure the true organic growth rate, potentially harming long-term profitability.
- Lack of Profitability: Despite revenue growth, SoundHound AI incurred a net loss exceeding $14 million in 2025, and even with adjustments for contingent acquisition liabilities, its financial performance remains poor, highlighting significant challenges in achieving profitability.
- Declining Investor Confidence: With the stock down 19% this year and diminishing market confidence in AI investments, SoundHound AI must demonstrate substantial earnings improvement in its upcoming report, or it risks continued scrutiny and selling pressure from investors.
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- Significant Sales Growth: SoundHound AI reported $168.9 million in sales for 2025, reflecting a year-over-year growth of approximately 99%, although growth rates are expected to decelerate substantially in 2026, posing challenges for the company's long-term performance.
- Narrowing Net Loss: The company posted an adjusted net loss of about $53.9 million last year, down from $69.1 million in 2024, indicating strong sales growth but raising concerns about the sustainability of long-term profitability.
- Market Valuation Volatility: With a market capitalization of roughly $3.5 billion and a forward price-to-sales ratio of about 15, the strong sales growth does not guarantee annual profitability, necessitating cautious risk assessment by investors.
- Intensifying Industry Competition: While SoundHound has established an early position in the conversational AI space, it faces competitive threats from both larger AI firms and smaller specialized startups, leaving future growth potential and profitability uncertain.
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