C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Down Following Weak Earnings

Shares of C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday following a dissappointing earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $26.44, but opened at $24.95. C3.ai shares last traded at $24.28, with a volume of 3,244,143 shares traded.

The company reported ($0.62) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by ($0.37). The business had revenue of $98.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.12 million. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 31.31% and a negative net margin of 79.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on AI shares. DA Davidson dropped their price target on C3.ai from $40.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities lifted their price target on C3.ai from $40.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on C3.ai from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on C3.ai from $29.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, C3.ai has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 3,949 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.36, for a total transaction of $167,279.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,048.36. This trade represents a 82.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 409,831 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.97, for a total value of $12,692,466.07. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,756,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,395,398.30. The trade was a 18.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,643,311 shares of company stock worth $59,736,620 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 33.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On C3.ai

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 3.6% during the fourth 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,529,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,128,000 after acquiring an additional 313,066 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,121,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,401,000 after acquiring an additional 38,185 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,306,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,455,000. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Stock Down 1.8 %

The company has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.61 and a beta of 1.98. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $32.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.54.

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.