C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Up 1.7% - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• C3.ai's stock rose by 1.7%, trading at $17.20, although the trading volume was significantly lower than average.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings on C3.ai, with one analyst suggesting a strong buy and others issuing ratings ranging from sell to hold, reflecting caution about its future performance.
• C3.ai reported revenue growth of 25.5% year-over-year in its last earnings report, but still had a negative net margin and return on equity.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 1.7% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $17.29 and last traded at $17.20. 2,294,488 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 6,052,583 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.91.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AI shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of C3.ai from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 16th. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of C3.ai to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Monday, August 11th. DA Davidson reiterated an "underperform" rating and issued a $13.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered shares of C3.ai from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $17.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $27.43.

C3.ai Stock Up 2.0%

The stock's fifty day moving average price is $23.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.51. The company has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a PE ratio of -7.69 and a beta of 1.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $108.72 million during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.11) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that C3.ai, Inc. will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 17,689 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.96, for a total transaction of $441,517.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 166,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,148,801.28. This represents a 9.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Merel Witteveen sold 5,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.95, for a total transaction of $131,365.75. Following the sale, the vice president owned 13,740 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $329,073. This represents a 28.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,256,269 shares of company stock valued at $53,241,984. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On C3.ai

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in C3.ai by 3.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,407,490 shares of the company's stock worth $282,228,000 after buying an additional 471,521 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in C3.ai by 4.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,826,249 shares of the company's stock worth $69,441,000 after buying an additional 116,611 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in C3.ai by 5.9% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,813,233 shares of the company's stock worth $69,129,000 after buying an additional 156,925 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in C3.ai by 2.6% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,214,190 shares of the company's stock worth $54,401,000 after buying an additional 56,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new position in C3.ai in the fourth quarter worth about $42,306,000. 38.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About C3.ai

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.

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