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 investors acquired 158,384 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 92% compared to the average daily volume of 82,329 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on AI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of C3.ai from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of C3.ai from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of C3.ai from $40.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of C3.ai from $42.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other C3.ai news, VP Merel Witteveen sold 11,132 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.95, for a total transaction of $389,063.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 4,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,762.90. This represents a 72.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard C. Levin sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.80, for a total transaction of $417,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 161,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,625,907.20. The trade was a 6.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,509,413 shares of company stock worth $43,210,053 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 33.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 800 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 100.7% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 909 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co acquired a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

C3.ai Stock Performance

NYSE:AI traded up $0.51 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $22.89. 1,650,301 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,228,263. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.29. C3.ai has a 1 year low of $18.85 and a 1 year high of $45.08. The company has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a PE ratio of -10.39 and a beta of 2.03.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.62) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $98.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.12 million. On average, research analysts expect 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.