Oppenheimer Initiates Coverage of SoundHound AI (SOUN) With a Perform Rating
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Sep 13 2025
0mins
Should l Buy SOUN?
Source: Yahoo Finance
Analyst Coverage: Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz initiated coverage of SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) with a Perform rating, highlighting its strong conversational AI technology and potential for durable growth.
Concerns and Comparisons: Despite its strengths, there are concerns about competitive threats and the company's ability to meet sales expectations, leading to a belief that other AI stocks may offer better investment opportunities.
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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: 8.980
Low
11.00
Averages
16.60
High
26.00
Current: 8.980
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.
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- Significant Sales Growth: The company nearly doubled its revenue in 2025 to $169 million, with Q4 revenue increasing 59% to $55.1 million, slightly above analysts' $54 million estimate, showcasing its competitive strength in the market.
- Market Sentiment Shift: Despite muted stock reactions post-earnings, investor sentiment on Stocktwits surged into the 'extremely bullish' zone, reflecting retail investors' optimism about the company's future performance.
- Active Short Trading: With short trades rising to 29.4%, investors widely anticipate a massive short squeeze, potentially driving stock prices higher, especially as the current stock price remains below $9, attracting more retail investor interest.
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- New Product Launch: The company introduced 'Sales Assist', a voice-powered AI agent designed to analyze customer conversations and provide real-time recommendations, expected to enhance retail sales efficiency and boost software revenue, initially targeting telecom shops.
- Innovation Hub Establishment: SoundHound has established a new innovation hub in Bengaluru, India, aimed at accelerating the development of its agentic AI platform and leveraging the local engineering talent pool, further expanding its global footprint.
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- Solid Cash Position: As of December 31, SoundHound had total cash and cash equivalents of $248 million with no debt, providing strong financial support for future expansion and investments.
- Optimistic Outlook: The company projects fiscal-year revenue between $225 million and $260 million, slightly below the consensus estimate of $230.16 million, yet still indicating ongoing growth potential and management's confidence in future performance.
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- Optimistic Revenue Forecast: SoundHound projects 2026 revenue between $225 million and $260 million, exceeding analysts' expectations of $230.2 million, indicating strong growth potential in the AI sector.
- Significant Sales Growth: The company nearly doubled its revenue in 2025 to $169 million, with Q4 revenue increasing 59% to $55.1 million, slightly above analysts' $54 million estimate, showcasing its competitive strength in the market.
- Market Sentiment Shift: Despite muted stock reactions post-earnings, investor sentiment on Stocktwits surged into the 'extremely bullish' zone, reflecting retail investors' optimism about the company's future performance.
- Active Short Trading: With short trades rising to 29.4%, investors widely anticipate a massive short squeeze, potentially driving stock prices higher, especially as the current stock price remains below $9, attracting more retail investor interest.
See More
SoundHound AI Shares Edge Higher Ahead of Q4 Results
- Earnings Expectations: SoundHound AI anticipates a fourth-quarter loss of $0.05 per share on revenues of approximately $53.97 million, reflecting a significant increase from $34.54 million last year, indicating ongoing growth potential in the AI sector.
- New Product Launch: The company introduced 'Sales Assist', a voice-powered AI agent designed to analyze customer conversations and provide real-time recommendations, expected to enhance retail sales efficiency and boost software revenue, initially targeting telecom shops.
- Innovation Hub Establishment: SoundHound has established a new innovation hub in Bengaluru, India, aimed at accelerating the development of its agentic AI platform and leveraging the local engineering talent pool, further expanding its global footprint.
- Market Performance Analysis: While the stock is trading 2.58% above its 20-day simple moving average, it is 4.1% below its 100-day moving average, indicating short-term strength but potential long-term challenges, with shares down approximately 60.7% over the past 12 months.
See More
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Market Trends: Investors are shifting from technology stocks to traditional defensive assets like gold, with evidence suggesting a rotation towards blue-chip stocks as tech stocks remain under pressure.
Earnings Reports: Anticipation surrounds upcoming earnings reports, particularly from companies like NVIDIA and PayPal, with analysts highlighting strong performance expectations and potential growth opportunities.
AI Sector: The AI infrastructure trade continues to be a significant market driver, with investors advised to focus on key stocks within the AI supply chain that are expected to perform well.
Investment Opportunities: Analysts recommend looking for undervalued stocks, particularly in the retail sector, as well as identifying potential long-term opportunities amidst market volatility and recent sell-offs.
See More
Burger King Enhances Whopper for First Time in a Decade
- Whopper Improvement: Burger King is enhancing the Whopper for the first time in a decade by introducing a premium bun and better-tasting mayo, aiming to boost customer satisfaction and strengthen brand competitiveness.
- AI Tool Implementation: Parent company Restaurant Brands International is deploying the AI tool “Patty” to facilitate real-time communication through employee headsets, enhancing customer service quality and operational efficiency, which is expected to positively impact sales.
- Employee Training Innovation: The AI system tracks the frequency of polite language used by employees, assisting management in providing feedback and training, with the goal of reinforcing human-centric service to improve customer relations and enhance brand loyalty.
- Stock Performance: Restaurant Brands International's stock rose 2.6% to $71.71, with a year-to-date increase of 5.3%, reflecting positive market sentiment towards its new strategies, which may further drive future sales growth.
See More
Lionsgate and SoundHound Options Trading Activity Surges
- Lionsgate Options Volume: Lionsgate Studios Corp (Ticker: LION) has seen an options volume of 11,351 contracts today, representing approximately 1.1 million underlying shares, which is about 48% of its average daily trading volume of 2.4 million shares over the past month.
- High Strike Option Activity: Notably, the $10 strike call option expiring on March 20, 2026, has recorded 2,604 contracts traded today, equating to around 260,400 underlying shares, indicating strong market interest in this stock.
- SoundHound Options Volume: SoundHound AI Inc (Ticker: SOUN) has reported an options volume of 129,617 contracts today, representing approximately 13.0 million underlying shares, which is about 47.9% of its average daily trading volume of 27.0 million shares over the past month.
- High Strike Option Activity: Particularly, the $9.50 strike call option expiring on February 27, 2026, has seen 18,230 contracts traded today, corresponding to approximately 1.8 million underlying shares, reflecting bullish sentiment among investors regarding this stock.
See More
SoundHound AI Reports Strong Q4 Results and Positive Outlook
- Strong Financial Performance: SoundHound AI reported Q4 revenue of $55.05 million, exceeding the consensus estimate of $53.99 million, indicating robust growth potential in the AI sector that is likely to drive stock price upward.
- Record Customer Deals: The company closed a record number of customer deals in the last quarter, reflecting a surge in demand for high-quality AI solutions, which enhances SoundHound's competitive position in the market.
- Solid Cash Position: As of December 31, SoundHound had total cash and cash equivalents of $248 million with no debt, providing strong financial support for future expansion and investments.
- Optimistic Outlook: The company projects fiscal-year revenue between $225 million and $260 million, slightly below the consensus estimate of $230.16 million, yet still indicating ongoing growth potential and management's confidence in future performance.
See More
