C3.ai's (AI) Market Outperform Rating Reiterated at JMP Securities

Key Points

• C3.ai's stock has a "market outperform" rating reaffirmed by JMP Securities, with a target price of $50.00 indicating a potential upside of 89.93%.
• Other analysts have varied opinions, with Oppenheimer lowering its target to $45.00 and JPMorgan setting it at $23.00, while the consensus rating is a "Hold" with a target of $29.79.
• C3.ai reported a quarterly earnings beat with $108.72 million in revenue, marking a year-over-year increase of 25.5%. However, the company continues to post negative margins and returns on equity.
• Recent insider selling saw Director John E. Hyten and VP Merel Witteveen reduce their holdings, indicating a 13.52% and 28.53% decrease in their positions, respectively.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market outperform" rating restated by research analysts at JMP Securities in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $50.00 price objective on the stock. JMP Securities' price objective points to a potential upside of 89.93% from the company's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of C3.ai from $56.00 to $45.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Westpark Capital raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of C3.ai from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. KeyCorp reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of C3.ai from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $29.79.

C3.ai Price Performance

Shares of AI opened at $26.33 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.51. C3.ai has a 1-year low of $17.03 and a 1-year high of $45.08. The stock has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.75 and a beta of 1.99.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last announced 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 company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.11) EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John E. Hyten sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $237,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 63,942 shares in the company, valued at $1,518,622.50. The trade was a 13.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Merel Witteveen sold 5,485 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.95, for a total transaction of $131,365.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 13,740 shares in the company, valued at $329,073. The trade was a 28.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,989,902 shares of company stock worth $51,379,600. Company insiders own 33.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of C3.ai

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AI. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,306,000. Man Group plc acquired a new stake in C3.ai during the 4th quarter valued at $38,455,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the fourth quarter valued at $30,725,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of C3.ai by 1,242.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 718,231 shares of the company's stock worth $24,729,000 after buying an additional 664,731 shares during the period. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 3,935.9% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 568,492 shares of the company's stock valued at $11,967,000 after buying an additional 554,406 shares in the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is currently 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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