SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) dropped 12.85% this week, closing at $7.46 on Friday. The voice AI company’s shares have now fallen 51% over the past year, dramatically underperforming the 11.81% gain in the S&P 500.
Three storylines are driving the selloff as investors reassess the company’s path to profitability.
Performance: Tech Sector Weakness Amplified
While the broader market dipped 1.29% this week, SoundHound’s decline was nearly 10 times steeper. Year to date, the stock has fallen 25.18%, compared to the S&P 500’s essentially flat performance.
The company’s beta of 2.876 means it moves almost three times as violently as the market, amplifying both rallies and selloffs.
SoundHound trades at a $3.13 billion market cap despite generating just $148.4 million in trailing twelve month revenue. That 21x price to sales ratio reflects high growth expectations.
At the end of the day, SoundHound isn’t alone. A broad sell-off of momentum stocks with high price-to-sales multiples began in mid-October. That’s impacted SoundHound, but its also hit categories like quantum computing and many other small-cap stocks in the AI trade.
How can momentum stocks reverse this decline? Performance is one area to watch. 90 days ago, Wall Street expected SoundHound would see -$.05 in adjusted EPS in 2026, today that number sits at -$.08. With Wall Street selling off momentum stocks broadly, the companies that will stand out need to see their estimates moving forward if share prices are goign to follow.
Storyline One: Earnings Uncertainty Before February 26 Report
SoundHound will report Q4 2025 results on February 26, 2026, just 11 days away.
Wall Street expects significant sequential acceleration. Last quarter, sales landed at $42.05 million. In Q4 Wall Street is expecting $53.88 million in sales. Adjusted EPS is expected to land at -$.10 per share. Last quarter, SoundHound equaled Wall Street’s estimate for adjusted earnings at -$.03. If this quarter once again simply meets (or even misses) expectations, I would expect another round of selling.
Storyline Two: Insider Selling Signals Caution
On December 22, 2025, six executives simultaneously sold shares at exactly $11.2769. CEO Keyvan Mohajer disposed of 144,326 shares for approximately $1.6 million. COO Michael Zagorsek sold 73,406 shares, and CFO Nitesh Sharan offloaded 60,780 shares.
Executives rely on planned sales, so this kind of activity is ‘normal.’ However, it is worth noting that across the past three months there have been zero open market buys recorded with 10 sales. Insider buying could lead to a positive sentiment shift, but we’ve yet to see any in 2026 so far.
Storyline Three: Valuation Reality in Competitive AI Landscape
SoundHound competes against tech giants with vastly deeper resources. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) trades at 9.3x sales with a 32.8% profit margin. SoundHound’s 21x sales multiple assumes it can defend its niche against Google Assistant and similar platforms.
With Wall Street estimates at -$55 million in EBITDA in 2026, the path to profitability requires either dramatic margin improvement or massive scale. Wall Street expects improvement in 2026, but as we noted earlier recent revisions to estimates have trended in a negative direction.
Analysts maintain a $16.31 average price target, implying more than 100% upside if the company executes. But with the February 26 earnings call approaching and insider selling continuing, investors are demanding proof before re-rating the stock higher.
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