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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 149,780 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 122% compared to the average volume of 67,453 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on C3.ai from $42.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of C3.ai from $25.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of C3.ai from $30.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.58.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In related news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 552,422 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.04, for a total transaction of $18,252,022.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,336,968 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,173,422.72. This trade represents a 29.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 13,567 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.47, for a total transaction of $264,149.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,461,977 shares of company stock valued at $37,418,759. 33.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in C3.ai by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 933,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,128,000 after buying an additional 88,750 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth about $3,996,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of C3.ai by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,935,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $445,385,000 after acquiring an additional 446,529 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 70.9% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 55,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,905,000 after purchasing an additional 22,949 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,015,000. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of C3.ai stock opened at $23.36 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.57 and a beta of 1.99. C3.ai has a twelve month low of $17.03 and a twelve month high of $45.08. The company’s fifty day moving average is $21.36 and its 200 day moving average is $28.54.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.62) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25) by ($0.37). C3.ai had a negative net margin of 79.17% and a negative return on equity of 31.31%. The company had revenue of $98.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $98.12 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.