C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Down Following Weak Earnings

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday following a dissappointing earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $26.44, but opened at $24.95. C3.ai shares last traded at $24.28, with a volume of 3,244,143 shares.

The company reported ($0.62) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25) by ($0.37). C3.ai had a negative net margin of 79.17% and a negative return on equity of 31.31%. The business had revenue of $98.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.12 million.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of C3.ai from $40.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of C3.ai from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of C3.ai from $42.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other C3.ai news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 552,422 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.04, for a total transaction of $18,252,022.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,336,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,173,422.72. The trade was a 29.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jim H. Snabe sold 499,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.05, for a total transaction of $21,512,085.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,500. The trade was a 98.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,643,311 shares of company stock valued at $59,736,620. 33.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of C3.ai

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of C3.ai by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,935,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $445,385,000 after purchasing an additional 446,529 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of C3.ai by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,529,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,128,000 after purchasing an additional 313,066 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of C3.ai by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,121,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,401,000 after purchasing an additional 38,185 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the fourth quarter worth $42,306,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of C3.ai in the fourth quarter worth $38,455,000. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Stock Down 1.8 %

The company has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.61 and a beta of 1.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $32.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.54.

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.