Highflying stock SoundHound AI nabbed a price-target hike on Monday as a Wall Street analyst sees increasing demand for the company's conversational voice AI technology.
H.C. Wainwright analyst Scott Buck reiterated his buy rating on SoundHound stock and upped his price target to 26 from 8.
"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," Buck said in a client note.
On the stock market today, SoundHound stock dropped 6.1% to close at 20.43. Shares have seesawed since hitting a record high of 24.08 on Dec. 18.
Year to date, SoundHound stock is up 864%.
The company's share price appreciation is being driven by several factors, including increasing demand for the company's artificial intelligence-enabled services across multiple sectors, Buck said.
SoundHound's largest business area now is providing voice AI technology for restaurant chains. Its latest contracts are with Church's Texas Chicken and Torchy's Tacos, which combined have more than 1,600 restaurant locations.
"Further, through recent acquisitions, we believe the company is positioned to meaningfully broaden its business reach well beyond the restaurant space in areas such as retail, healthcare and financial services," Buck said.
SoundHound stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 87 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
IBD's Composite Rating is a blend of key fundamental and technical metrics to help investors gauge a stock's strengths. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
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