C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $10.00 to $7.00. The stock had previously closed at $10.31, but opened at $7.79. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an underweight rating on the stock. C3.ai shares last traded at $8.56, with a volume of 9,999,961 shares changing hands.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on AI. Citizens Jmp cut C3.ai from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of C3.ai from $13.00 to $7.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush cut their price target on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, C3.ai has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $15.87.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In other C3.ai news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,042 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 223,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,208,465.60. This represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 511,732 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,422,740.92. The trade was a 41.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,884,304 shares of company stock worth $24,970,674. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush maintained an outperform stance despite lowering its target to $15, implying significant upside if the company stabilizes. Article
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS cut its target to $9 and moved to neutral — a smaller downgrade that still implies modest upside versus the current price. Article
• Negative Sentiment: Q3 results missed expectations: EPS of ($0.40) vs. ($0.29) est., revenue $53.3M vs. $75.9M est., and revenue down ~46% YoY — a clear near‑term demand and conversion problem. Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Management cut 26% of global staff and flagged a reduced cost structure; Q4 revenue guide $48M–$52M vs. ~$77.6M consensus and FY revenue guide ~$246.7M–$250.7M vs. ~$298.7M consensus — guidance shortfalls drove much of the selloff. Reuters
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms aggressively lowered targets and ratings (JPMorgan to $7/underweight; Canaccord to $7/hold; KeyCorp to $6/underweight; Citizens JMP downgraded to market perform), amplifying selling pressure. Benzinga
• Negative Sentiment: Ademi LLP announced an investigation into potential securities‑fraud claims tied to C3.ai’s statements — a legal overhang that increases investor uncertainty. PR Newswire
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst and media commentary highlight structural issues: collapsing gross margins, difficulty converting pilots to enterprise contracts, and deepening losses — signaling the recovery path is uncertain and likely prolonged. Seeking Alpha

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AI. Silicon Valley Capital Partners acquired a new position in C3.ai in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 683.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,292 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 66.1% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in C3.ai by 76.4% during the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,849 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank increased its position in C3.ai by 839.1% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 2,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 2,165 shares during the period. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

C3.ai Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $12.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of -2.67 and a beta of 1.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.40) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by ($0.11). C3.ai had a negative net margin of 141.35% and a negative return on equity of 53.96%. The firm had revenue of $53.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.12) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 46.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that C3.ai, Inc. will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.