C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Shares of C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $12.60, but opened at $14.09. C3.ai shares last traded at $13.0640, with a volume of 10,658,027 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on AI shares. DA Davidson restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $21.92.

C3.ai Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $14.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.24. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.67 and a beta of 1.97.

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

Insider Activity at C3.ai

In other C3.ai news, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 543,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.24, for a total transaction of $8,286,079.44. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 1,437,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,902,531.76. The trade was a 27.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $216,303.96. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 223,120 shares in the company, valued at $3,208,465.60. This represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 1,916,218 shares of company stock worth $27,468,077 in the last three months. Insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AI. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its position in C3.ai by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 12,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,000 after purchasing an additional 2,194 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth $62,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in C3.ai by 66.1% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 852 shares during the last quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC acquired a new position in C3.ai in the fourth quarter valued at $1,006,000. Finally, Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA lifted its position in C3.ai by 150.0% during the fourth quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 25,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the period. 38.96% of the stock is currently 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.