C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) Receives Consensus Rating of "Reduce" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analyst sentiment on C3.ai is cautious: The stock has a consensus rating of "Reduce" from 13 brokerages, with six sell ratings, six hold ratings, and only one buy. The average 12-month price target is about $10.67.
• Insiders have been selling shares: CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian and CFO Hitesh Lath both sold stock in recent transactions, and insiders sold 1.16 million shares worth about $11.4 million over the last three months. The sales were largely tied to tax withholding and equity award vesting.
• Recent earnings showed mixed results: C3.ai reported a smaller-than-expected loss of $0.33 per share, matching revenue estimates at $51.6 million, but revenue fell 52.5% from a year earlier. Analysts expect the company to post a full-year loss of $2.28 per share.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Reduce" from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.6667.

Several research firms recently weighed in on AI. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of C3.ai from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. DA Davidson reaffirmed an "underperform" rating and issued a $7.00 target price on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an "underweight" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, June 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other C3.ai news, CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian sold 50,542 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.45, for a total transaction of $477,621.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 651,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,153,178.50. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.77, for a total value of $426,388.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 383,106 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,359,839.62. This represents a 11.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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 sold 1,155,144 shares of company stock worth $11,420,651 over the last three months. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in C3.ai by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,469,953 shares of the company's stock valued at $195,055,000 after buying an additional 108,011 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 115.0% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 384,486 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,183,000 after buying an additional 205,640 shares in the last quarter. Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the 1st quarter worth about $2,686,000. Naviter Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the 4th quarter worth about $1,006,000. Finally, Atom Investors LP increased its stake in shares of C3.ai by 498.4% in the 4th quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 374,371 shares of the company's stock worth $5,047,000 after acquiring an additional 311,813 shares in the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

C3.ai Stock Performance

NYSE AI opened at $8.55 on Wednesday. C3.ai has a fifty-two week low of $7.68 and a fifty-two week high of $29.30. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.04. The stock has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.56 and a beta of 2.06.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 3rd. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.38) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $51.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.60 million. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 62.44% and a negative net margin of 187.95%.The business's quarterly revenue was down 52.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that C3.ai will post -2.28 earnings per share 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.

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