C3.ai Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 116,244 call options on the company. This is an increase of 68% compared to the typical daily volume of 69,374 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $25.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen M. Ward, Jr. sold 42,382 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.32, for a total value of $1,115,494.24. Following the sale, the director now owns 546,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,383,748.40. This trade represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 356,418 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total transaction of $7,196,079.42. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 241,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,881,295.92. This trade represents a 59.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,752,730 shares of company stock valued at $41,551,316. Company insiders own 33.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On C3.ai

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of C3.ai in the first quarter worth about $29,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 100.7% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 909 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of C3.ai in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of C3.ai in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, CX Institutional acquired a new position in shares of C3.ai in the first quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE:AI opened at $24.29 on Friday. C3.ai has a twelve month low of $17.03 and a twelve month high of $45.08. The company has a 50-day moving average of $23.57 and a 200-day moving average of $26.86. The firm has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.85 and a beta of 2.04.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by $0.04. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 74.21% and a negative return on equity of 33.51%. The company had revenue of $108.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.85 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.11) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

About C3.ai

C3.ai, Inc operates as an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software company in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides C3 AI platform, an application development and runtime environment that enables customers to design, develop, and deploy enterprise AI applications; C3 AI Ex Machina for analysis-ready data; C3 AI CRM, an industry specific customer relationship management solution; and C3 Generative AI Product Suite that enables to locate, retrieve, and present information.