Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on C3.ai (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 161,090 call options on the company. This is an increase of 142% compared to the typical daily volume of 66,653 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AI shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on C3.ai from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (up from $26.00) on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of C3.ai from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $29.46.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In related news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 13,567 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.47, for a total transaction of $264,149.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Merel Witteveen sold 5,719 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.32, for a total value of $133,367.08. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at $281,379.12. The trade was a 32.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,529,519 shares of company stock valued at $34,038,096. 33.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of C3.ai

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the first quarter valued at $177,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai during the first quarter worth $2,983,000. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in C3.ai by 75.7% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 88,507 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,863,000 after purchasing an additional 38,135 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in C3.ai by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 59,004 shares of the company's stock worth $1,242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in shares of C3.ai by 870.9% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 8,709 shares of the company's stock worth $183,000 after purchasing an additional 7,812 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company's stock.

C3.ai Trading Down 4.4%

Shares of C3.ai stock traded down $1.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $26.58. 11,988,832 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,237,889. C3.ai has a 1 year low of $17.03 and a 1 year high of $45.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.03 and a beta of 1.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $21.87 and a 200-day moving average of $28.29.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $108.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $107.85 million. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 79.17% and a negative return on equity of 31.31%. C3.ai's revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.11) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.