Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on C3.ai (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 108,092 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 78% compared to the average volume of 60,840 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian sold 234,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.56, for a total transaction of $3,185,488.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 924,074 shares in the company, valued at $12,530,443.44. This represents a 20.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 511,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.66, for a total value of $5,966,795.12. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 722,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,422,740.92. The trade was a 41.47% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,836,610 shares of company stock valued at $21,262,517. 26.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Silicon Valley Capital Partners acquired a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 683.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 1,292 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in C3.ai by 66.1% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in C3.ai by 76.4% during the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank grew its stake in C3.ai by 839.1% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 2,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 2,165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Trading Down 2.3%

AI stock opened at $8.47 on Friday. C3.ai has a 12-month low of $7.72 and a 12-month high of $30.24. The business’s 50-day moving average is $10.75 and its 200 day moving average is $14.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.69 and a beta of 2.05.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.40) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by ($0.11). C3.ai had a negative net margin of 141.35% and a negative return on equity of 55.40%. The firm had revenue of $53.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) EPS. C3.ai’s revenue was down 46.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that C3.ai will post -2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AI. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of C3.ai from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of C3.ai from $13.00 to $7.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “reduce” rating on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, C3.ai currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $15.87.

Key Stories Impacting C3.ai

Here are the key news stories impacting C3.ai this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Unusual call-option activity — Investors bought roughly 108,092 call options on Friday (about a 78% jump vs. typical daily call volume). Heavy call buying can signal bullish, short-term speculation or positioning ahead of potential positive catalysts; it can lift near-term price and implied volatility.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategy tightening may improve conversions — C3.ai is narrowing its AI pilot approach to focus on higher-value deployments aimed at better conversion rates and clearer ROI for enterprise customers, which could improve future revenue visibility and deal economics if execution succeeds. C3.ai Tightens AI Pilot Strategy
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider selling by the chairman — Chairman Thomas Siebel disclosed multi-day sales totaling several hundred thousand shares (transactions on March 17–18 totaling millions of dollars). Large insider reductions, especially by a founder-level figure, are generally viewed negatively by the market and can pressure the stock. Chairman Sells $1.9M in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Investor litigation probe — Pomerantz LLP has opened an investigation on behalf of C3.ai investors, a development that can increase legal and reputational risk and weigh on sentiment until resolved. Pomerantz Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst consensus and ratings are weak — Recent analyst coverage shows a consensus “Reduce” rating and continued price-target cuts, reflecting skepticism on near-term revenue and profitability recovery; this contributes to selling pressure. Consensus “Reduce” Rating

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.