Shares of Veritone (VERI) are on the rise after the company’s CEO Chad Steelberg told Bloomberg that the company’s shares are not worthy of shorting and in fact are undervalued. This comes a few weeks after short-seller Citron argued that the stock is headed dramatically lower.
SHARES STILL CHEAP: Veritone is a cloud-based artificial intelligence company, whose shares have seen a 300% gain over the last couple of months. While it has drawn criticism from short sellers such as Citron Research that say the gains are overblown, its CEO Chad Steelberg believes that not only is the stock a bad short, it is still undervalued, according to a report by Bloomberg. Further, the chief executive believes the market opportunity for Veritone’s technology is huge, the publication noted, citing their interview with the executive. Steelberg, who envisions thousands of companies using applications on his platform, is quoted as having said: “Our general solution can be applied to so many problems. It clearly shows that our stock is undervalued given the use cases being leveraged by our partners.”
HEADING TO $20: Back on September 27, short-selling firm Citron Research tweeted, “$veri is not artificial intelligence, more like natural stupidity. Stock should trade right back to $20.” Veritone shares fell by about 30% that day.
THE ‘REAL DEAL’: Commenting on the short report, Roth Capital analyst Brian Alger said on September 29 that he is convinced Veritone is “the real deal” and is transforming businesses through the orchestration of third party ANI engines. Alger, who said Veritone has been clear in its intentions to utilize M&A and now has a list of over 30 potential targets, told investors that he thinks that with deal potential incorporated a $1B valuation is “not only reasonable, but could be conservative.” The analyst raised his price target on the shares to $62 from $13.20, while reiterating a Buy rating on the stock.
