C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after KeyCorp lowered their price target on the stock from $10.00 to $6.00. The stock had previously closed at $10.31, but opened at $7.79. KeyCorp currently has an underweight rating on the stock. C3.ai shares last traded at $8.56, with a volume of 9,999,961 shares.

AI has been the subject of several other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. DA Davidson reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $20.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other C3.ai news, CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian sold 234,918 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.56, for a total transaction of $3,185,488.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 924,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,530,443.44. The trade was a 20.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $216,303.96. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 223,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,208,465.60. The trade was a 6.32% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 1,884,304 shares of company stock worth $24,970,674 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

More C3.ai News

Here are the key news stories impacting C3.ai this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong federal bookings were highlighted by the company and noted in coverage, which supports a durable revenue stream from government contracts and is a rare bright spot in the quarter. C3.ai Stock Tumbles on Wider-Than-Expected Q3 Loss
• Neutral Sentiment: New CEO Stephen Ehikian announced a restructuring plan including significant job cuts (company-wide reduction announced as ~26% in later reports); this could improve margins longer term but signals serious near-term execution and demand issues. C3.ai cuts 26% of global staff under new CEO’s restructuring push
• Neutral Sentiment: The full Q3 earnings call transcript is available for detail on customer dynamics, regional shortfalls and management’s rationale for guidance and cost actions; investors should read it for forward visibility. Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Q3 results missed expectations: EPS ($0.40) vs. consensus (~$0.29 miss) and revenue of $53.3M versus estimates near $75–76M — revenue fell ~46% YoY, driving sharp margin deterioration. MarketBeat earnings summary
• Negative Sentiment: Company cut Q4 and FY26 revenue guidance materially: Q4 revenue now $48M–$52M (consensus ~ $77.6M) and FY revenue trimmed to ~$246.7M–$250.7M (consensus ~ $298.7M). The guidance shortfall is the main driver of the selloff. C3 AI Stock Tanks After Q3 Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts reacted: Citizens Jmp downgraded AI from “market outperform” to “market perform,” reflecting reduced near-term confidence and adding selling pressure. Analyst downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentary and podcasts highlighted the magnitude of the miss and weak guidance; coverage notes regional sales shortfalls and additional workforce reductions as reasons for the sharp share decline. Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: C3.Ai’s Big Miss

Institutional Trading of C3.ai

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of C3.ai by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,469,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,055,000 after purchasing an additional 108,011 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,824,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,034,000 after purchasing an additional 91,802 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in C3.ai by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,976,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,122,000 after buying an additional 94,086 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in C3.ai by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,868,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,675,000 after buying an additional 21,451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in C3.ai by 9.6% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,425,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,066,000 after buying an additional 211,786 shares in the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

C3.ai Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.15. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of -3.03 and a beta of 1.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.33) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $75.15 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $74.86 million. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 108.06% and a negative return on equity of 46.51%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.06) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that C3.ai, Inc. will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

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.