SoundHound AI (SOUN 2.42%) stock has more than quadrupled over just the last three months. Shares of the maker of voice recognition artificial intelligence (AI) technology solutions are now higher by 860% year to date.
Wall Street analyst Scott Buck with H.C. Wainwright thinks it has more room to run. Buck just issued a note maintaining his "buy" rating on the stock and ratcheted his price target from $8 to $26 per share, according to reports. That would imply another 27% upside even after the stock's recent surge higher.
NASDAQ: SOUN
Key Data Points
Voice generative artificial intelligence (AI)
A market that began with voice technology in customer service sectors such as restaurants has expanded to other areas, including automotive use cases for voice generative AI bringing cloud-based large language models into vehicles.
That's led SoundHound management to increase its revenue guidance this year and estimate that sales will approximately double in 2025.
The H.C. Wainwright analyst sees demand continuing to grow across multiple sectors. In his client note this week, Buck noted that recent acquisitions will allow SoundHound to "meaningfully" increase the scope of its business in sectors including retail, healthcare, and financial services.
One concern for investors, though, is SoundHound's valuation. The company isn't yet profitable and has a forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of nearly 90. Buck addressed that in his report:
While valuation levels may look stretched at today's share price, we believe the company has built a scalable platform which should allow revenue, adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] and ultimately earnings to catch up to share price over time.
Investors buying the stock now will need to be patient, as Buck notes. It should be considered an aggressive investment, but as use cases grow, SoundHound could have a bright, and profitable, future.
