Wall Street Zen Downgrades C3.ai (NYSE:AI) to Sell

Key Points

• C3.ai was downgraded from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating by Wall Street Zen as several analysts reevaluate their positions on the stock.
• The current consensus for C3.ai is a "hold" rating with a target price of $27.43, while the stock trades around $17.86.
• CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold over 601,000 shares, representing a 13.61% decrease in his ownership, amid increased insider selling over the last quarter.

Wall Street Zen cut shares of C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AI. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of C3.ai from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Northland Securities cut C3.ai from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $27.43.

C3.ai Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of C3.ai stock traded up $0.52 on Friday, reaching $18.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,635,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,047,421. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $24.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.21. C3.ai has a 52-week low of $14.70 and a 52-week high of $45.08. The company has a market capitalization of $2.47 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.20 and a beta of 1.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $108.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.85 million. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 74.21% and a negative return on equity of 33.51%. C3.ai's quarterly revenue was up 25.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.11) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other C3.ai news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 577,678 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.78, for a total value of $9,693,436.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,973,572 shares in the company, valued at $49,896,538.16. The trade was a 16.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John E. Hyten sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $237,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 63,942 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,622.50. This represents a 13.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,257,074 shares of company stock valued at $53,260,950. 33.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On C3.ai

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AI. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of C3.ai by 100.7% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 909 shares of the company's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new position in C3.ai during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of C3.ai in the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, CX Institutional acquired a new position in C3.ai in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

C3.ai Company Profile

C3.ai, Inc operates as an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software company in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides C3 AI platform, an application development and runtime environment that enables customers to design, develop, and deploy enterprise AI applications; C3 AI Ex Machina for analysis-ready data; C3 AI CRM, an industry specific customer relationship management solution; and C3 Generative AI Product Suite that enables to locate, retrieve, and present information.