Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on C3.ai (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 77,063 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 105% compared to the average daily volume of 37,663 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of C3.ai from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of C3.ai from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, June 4th. DA Davidson reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $7.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “underweight” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, C3.ai currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $10.67.

C3.ai Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AI traded down $0.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $8.82. The company had a trading volume of 5,970,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,359,812. The company has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.64 and a beta of 2.06. The business’s 50-day moving average is $9.69 and its 200 day moving average is $10.14. C3.ai has a 52 week low of $7.68 and a 52 week high of $30.11.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 3rd. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.38) by $0.05. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 62.44% and a negative net margin of 187.95%.The firm had revenue of $51.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 52.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that C3.ai will post -2.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other C3.ai news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 472,005 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.11, for a total value of $5,243,975.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 722,362 shares in the company, valued at $8,025,441.82. The trade was a 39.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 48,619 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.77, for a total value of $426,388.63. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 383,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,359,839.62. This trade represents a 11.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 1,155,144 shares of company stock worth $11,420,651 over the last ninety days. 26.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of C3.ai by 267.9% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 181,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,788,000 after purchasing an additional 132,056 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in C3.ai by 48.7% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the 1st quarter valued at $346,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 242,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,111,000 after acquiring an additional 10,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 59,004 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,242,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares in the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About C3.ai

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.