Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI)

Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders purchased 2,771 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average volume of 1,515 call options.

Veritone Stock Performance

NASDAQ VERI opened at $1.84 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.77, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.31. Veritone has a 1 year low of $1.22 and a 1 year high of $9.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.93 million, a PE ratio of -2.75 and a beta of 2.16.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VERI has been the subject of several recent research reports. D. Boral Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 price target on shares of Veritone in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Veritone in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Veritone from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, March 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Veritone in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veritone

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royce & Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of Veritone during the third quarter worth about $2,603,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. purchased a new stake in Veritone in the third quarter valued at approximately $241,000. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in Veritone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. 683 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Veritone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $891,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Veritone by 47.8% in the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 25,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 8,130 shares in the last quarter. 39.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Veritone News

Here are the key news stories impacting Veritone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud deal with Oracle should improve scalability and enterprise credibility, and management flagged an expanded go-to-market for Veritone’s aiWARE and data products — a clear catalyst for future revenue growth. Veritone Announces Strategic Agreement with Oracle
• Positive Sentiment: Company issued a 2026 revenue target (up to $145M) that sparked a sharp intraday rally after the release — this guidance is the primary bullish driver underpinning optimism about recovery and scale. Veritone stock surges 22% on fiscal 2026 revenue outlook
• Positive Sentiment: D. Boral Capital reaffirmed a “buy” and set a $14 price target, signaling at least one analyst view that the company has significant upside if execution and growth materialize. Benzinga Rating Note
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: buyers purchased ~2,771 call options (≈83% above average), which can indicate speculative bullish interest or hedging ahead of volatility but is not definitive on directional conviction. (No article link available.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Company released earnings call/transcript and prepared remarks for Q4; these provide detail on outlook and execution plans that investors will parse for credibility of guidance. Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Q4 results materially missed expectations: EPS of ($0.41) vs. ($0.06) expected and revenue of $18.1M vs. ~$34.3M consensus — a large shortfall that explains immediate selling pressure and questions around near-term demand. MarketBeat Earnings Summary
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary and media coverage framed the earnings miss as the reason shares were “tanking” despite the Oracle deal and guidance, amplifying negative sentiment and heavy intraday volume. Why is Veritone stock tanking Friday?

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.