Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) Downgraded to Strong Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on VERI. Weiss Ratings raised Veritone from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price objective on shares of Veritone in a report on Monday, March 30th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Veritone in a report on Monday, June 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $2.50 target price for the company. Finally, D. Boral Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Veritone in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.38.

Veritone Stock Down 1.7%

NASDAQ:VERI traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $1.18. The company had a trading volume of 2,512,853 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,662,670. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $1.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.71. The firm has a market cap of $109.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.57 and a beta of 2.28. Veritone has a twelve month low of $1.14 and a twelve month high of $9.42.

Institutional Trading of Veritone

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VERI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Veritone by 63.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,754,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,275,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,460 shares during the period. Banta Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Veritone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,268,000. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC bought a new stake in Veritone during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,718,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Veritone by 16,314.3% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,676,397 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,080,000 after purchasing an additional 1,666,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veritone by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 984,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,581,000 after purchasing an additional 441,875 shares in the last quarter. 39.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Veritone

Here are the key news stories impacting Veritone this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple law firms, including Rosen, Hagens Berman, Faruqi & Faruqi, Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter, and others, issued reminders about the July 20 lead-plaintiff deadline in the pending Veritone securities fraud case, keeping legal risk in focus for shareholders.
• Neutral Sentiment: The lawsuits center on claims that Veritone and certain executives misled investors about the company’s financial performance and that previously issued financial statements were materially misstated, which can weigh on sentiment until there is more clarity on the outcome.
• Neutral Sentiment: One report noted a sharp increase in short interest during July, but the filing also showed zero shares of short interest, making the data unclear and likely not a meaningful trading catalyst on its own.

About Veritone

Veritone, Inc (NASDAQ: VERI) is a technology company specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for media, legal, government and enterprise applications. Its flagship offering, aiWARE™, is a cloud-based operating system that orchestrates and automates an ecosystem of machine learning models to transform unstructured data—such as audio, video and text—into actionable intelligence. By providing a modular AI environment, Veritone enables organizations to deploy, manage and scale cognitive engines that address diverse use cases from transcription and translation to sentiment analysis and facial recognition.

Through aiWARE and its suite of purpose-built applications, the company delivers turnkey solutions for content licensing, media monitoring, eDiscovery, compliance and public safety.