Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on C3.ai (NYSE:AI)

Key Points

• Investors bought an unusual volume of call options — 92,737 calls, a 77% increase over typical call volume — signaling heightened bullish/speculative options activity in C3.ai.
• Insider activity was mixed: CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,248 shares at $8.98 while director Jim H. Snabe bought 25,000 shares at $9.00, even as insiders net sold 1,623,178 shares over the past three months (insiders own 26.5%).
• C3.ai reported weak results and guidance: quarterly EPS missed at -$0.40 (vs. -$0.29 est.) and revenue $53.26M (vs. $75.91M), revenue down 46% YoY; the stock trades near $8.66 and the analyst consensus is Reduce with a $15.87 target.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 92,737 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 77% compared to the typical volume of 52,435 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other C3.ai news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,248 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.98, for a total value of $136,927.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 238,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,140,005.84. This represents a 6.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Jim H. Snabe bought 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $9.00 per share, for a total transaction of $225,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 395,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,555,000. This trade represents a 6.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 1,623,178 shares of company stock valued at $15,560,098 over the last three months. 26.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in C3.ai by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,469,953 shares of the company's stock worth $195,055,000 after acquiring an additional 108,011 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in C3.ai by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,824,499 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,034,000 after purchasing an additional 91,802 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in C3.ai by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,976,389 shares of the company's stock valued at $40,122,000 after buying an additional 94,086 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in C3.ai by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,868,578 shares of the company's stock worth $38,675,000 after buying an additional 21,451 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 9.6% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,425,976 shares of the company's stock worth $42,066,000 after buying an additional 211,786 shares during the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

C3.ai Price Performance

NYSE:AI traded down $0.73 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $8.66. The stock had a trading volume of 4,289,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,446,870. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.75 and a beta of 2.08. C3.ai has a fifty-two week low of $7.68 and a fifty-two week high of $30.24. The business's 50 day moving average is $9.09 and its 200 day moving average is $12.78.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $53.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.91 million. C3.ai had a negative net margin of 141.35% and a negative return on equity of 55.40%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 46.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. Equities analysts expect that C3.ai will post -3.23 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AI has been the subject of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $16.00 to $7.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group restated a "reduce" rating on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush cut their price objective on C3.ai from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of C3.ai from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $13.00 to $7.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, C3.ai presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $15.87.

About C3.ai

C3.ai, Inc is a leading enterprise software provider focused on delivering scalable artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to large organizations. The company's core offering, the C3 AI Suite, is a comprehensive, model-driven platform that unifies data ingestion, model development, and application deployment. Through its suite of tools, C3.ai enables customers to accelerate digital transformation initiatives by applying advanced machine learning, predictive analytics, and AI-driven insights across a broad range of business functions.

The C3 AI Suite provides a low-code environment for data scientists and application developers to rapidly design, test, and deploy enterprise-scale AI applications.

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