Soundhound AI Stock Up Over 1,000% YTD: Will It Hit Most Bullish Retail Price Projections?

Hot artificial intelligence (AI) stock SoundHound, Inc. (SOUN) has gained 1,043% this year, and retail sentiment toward the stock has dimmed amid the stretched valuation. 

Shares of SoundHound AI ended Thursday’s session 19.71% higher at $24.23.

A Stocktwits poll, which sought retailers’ views on where the stock would end the year, produced mixed responses. With 6,400 responses polled and four days left for the poll to end, 30% said the stock would end in the $20-$25 range.

Twenty-five percent said the stock will break out of the psychological barrier of $30,  27% expect it to close below 27% and 18% are eyeing a  $25-$30 price range for the year. 

Sentiment toward the stock has waned significantly since the start of the year. From the ‘bullish’ sentiment that prevailed a year ago and three months back, the retail mood worsened to ‘neutral’ a month ago. It deteriorated further to ‘bearish’ a day ago and has stayed the same.

SOUN sentiment and message volume December 27, 2024, premarket as of 5:34 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Message volume has perked up to ‘high,’ and the participation ratio, which measures the number of unique user accounts posting on a stream to the total messages on the stream, remains ‘high,’ signaling a wide retail investor involvement.

SoundHound AI, a conversational AI company headquartered in San Diego, California, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the gravitation toward AI stocks following Donald Trump’s reelection. The company also announced a few deals for deploying its voice AI products at fast-casual taco chain Torchy’s Taco and Church’s Texas Chicken. 

The market now looks forward to the Jan. 7-10 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it will showcase its first-of-its-kind voice AI for automotive.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives expects Soundound AI to leverage its partnership with Nvidia Corp. ($NVDA) to bring voice-generative AI to the edge without cloud connectivity. He said the company will likely demo this at the CES 2025. 

Ives has an ‘Outperform’ rating on SoundHound AI shares with a $22 price target. 

With the stock trading above most analysts’ price targets, a Stocktwits watcher recommended taking profits.

Another expressed worries about company insiders flooding the market with more shares.

SoundHound AI slipped 1.03% in premarket trading to $23.98 as of 5:34 a.m. ET

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