C3.ai Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:AI)

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on C3.ai from $16.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “reduce” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note 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 assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $15.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,248 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.98, for a total transaction of $136,927.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 238,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,140,005.84. This represents a 6.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 511,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.66, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,836,610 shares of company stock worth $21,262,517. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AI. Silicon Valley Capital Partners acquired a new position in C3.ai during the second quarter worth $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 1,292 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in C3.ai by 76.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in C3.ai during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of NYSE AI traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $8.49. The stock had a trading volume of 1,333,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,076,033. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $10.86 and a 200-day moving average of $14.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.69 and a beta of 2.05. C3.ai has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $30.24.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last posted 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). The firm had revenue of $53.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.91 million. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 141.35% and a negative return on equity of 55.40%. C3.ai’s revenue was down 46.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that C3.ai will post -2.44 EPS for the current 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.