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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 157,547 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 115% compared to the typical volume of 73,164 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on AI. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer set a $10.00 target price on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $19.00.

C3.ai Stock Performance

AI stock opened at $11.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.89 and a beta of 1.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.07. C3.ai has a 52-week low of $10.90 and a 52-week high of $35.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported ($0.25) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.08. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 46.51% and a negative net margin of 108.06%.The company had revenue of $75.15 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.86 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.06) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In related news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total transaction of $216,303.96. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 223,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,208,465.60. The trade was a 6.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 543,706 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.24, for a total value of $8,286,079.44. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 1,437,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,902,531.76. This represents a 27.45% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 1,916,218 shares of company stock worth $27,468,077 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in C3.ai by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,469,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,055,000 after purchasing an additional 108,011 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,826,249 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,441,000 after buying an additional 116,611 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of C3.ai by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,813,233 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,129,000 after buying an additional 156,925 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of C3.ai by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,425,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,066,000 after acquiring an additional 211,786 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in C3.ai by 77.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,804,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,284,000 after acquiring an additional 785,508 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Company Profile

C3.ai, Inc is a leading enterprise software provider focused on delivering scalable artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to large organizations. The company’s core offering, the C3 AI Suite, is a comprehensive, model-driven platform that unifies data ingestion, model development, and application deployment. Through its suite of tools, C3.ai enables customers to accelerate digital transformation initiatives by applying advanced machine learning, predictive analytics, and AI-driven insights across a broad range of business functions.

The C3 AI Suite provides a low-code environment for data scientists and application developers to rapidly design, test, and deploy enterprise-scale AI applications.