C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Trading Up 3.7% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• C3.ai's stock increased by 3.7% during trading, with shares last priced at $17.49, down from a high of $17.64.
• Analysts have mixed views on the stock, with target prices ranging from a low of $13.00 to a high of $50.00, resulting in an average target price of $27.43.
• Insider trading activity shows a significant sell-off, with insiders having sold over 2.25 million shares in the past ninety days, indicating potential concerns about the company’s future performance.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) shares were up 3.7% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $17.64 and last traded at $17.49. Approximately 2,629,133 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 6,051,148 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.86.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AI has been the topic of a number of research reports. DA Davidson restated an "underperform" rating and issued a $13.00 price target (down from $25.00) on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Monday, August 11th. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. KeyCorp restated a "mixed" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Westpark Capital upgraded C3.ai to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. One equities research 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $27.43.

C3.ai Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.84 and a 200 day moving average of $23.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.81 and a beta of 1.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $108.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $107.85 million. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 33.51% and a negative net margin of 74.21%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.11) earnings per share. C3.ai has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. FY 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that C3.ai, Inc. will post -2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other C3.ai news, VP Merel Witteveen sold 5,485 shares of the firm's 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 directly owned 13,740 shares of the company's stock, valued at $329,073. This trade represents a 28.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 17,689 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.96, for a total value of $441,517.44. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,257,074 shares of company stock valued at $53,260,950 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 33.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marex Group plc purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai during the second quarter valued at about $250,000. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its position in shares of C3.ai by 9.0% during the second quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 82,569 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,945,000 after purchasing an additional 6,823 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai during the second quarter valued at about $256,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of C3.ai by 601.2% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 21,794 shares of the company's stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 18,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in shares of C3.ai by 84.4% during the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 110,877 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,724,000 after purchasing an additional 50,758 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.96% of the company's stock.

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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