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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 233,169 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 134% compared to the typical volume of 99,796 call options.

C3.ai Price Performance

Shares of C3.ai stock opened at $19.16 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.37 and a beta of 1.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $18.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.79. C3.ai has a 1 year low of $14.70 and a 1 year high of $45.08.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.86) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by ($0.65). C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 40.69% and a negative net margin of 92.08%.The business had revenue of $70.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $104.02 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.05) EPS. C3.ai’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. C3.ai has set its Q2 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other C3.ai news, EVP Robert David Schilling sold 470,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total value of $8,133,561.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 1,011,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,485,843.83. This trade represents a 31.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 589,468 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.58, for a total value of $16,846,995.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,227,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,237,205.72. This represents a 15.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,695,772 shares of company stock valued at $54,661,544. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AI. Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new stake in C3.ai during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the second quarter valued at about $563,000. Marex Group plc bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the 2nd quarter valued at about $250,000. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its position in shares of C3.ai by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 82,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,945,000 after buying an additional 6,823 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $256,000. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on AI. Westpark Capital raised C3.ai to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of C3.ai from $28.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of C3.ai from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 16th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $18.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Northland Securities cut shares of C3.ai from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, C3.ai currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $22.09.

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.