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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 199,761 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 403% compared to the typical daily volume of 39,728 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.37, for a total value of $247,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 305,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,775,942.50. The trade was a 6.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Thomas Siebel sold 435,363 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.82, for a total transaction of $5,145,990.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 722,362 shares in the company, valued at $8,538,318.84. The trade was a 37.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 1,573,172 shares of company stock worth $17,117,621 over the last quarter. 19.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in C3.ai by 418.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 177,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,495,000 after acquiring an additional 143,303 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in C3.ai in the 1st quarter valued at $934,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in C3.ai by 55.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,282,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,636,000 after acquiring an additional 1,166,302 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of C3.ai by 67.3% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,215,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,233,000 after acquiring an additional 488,710 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its position in shares of C3.ai by 247.5% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 658,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,545,000 after acquiring an additional 469,057 shares during the period. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

C3.ai Stock Performance

NYSE:AI traded down $0.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $11.32. The stock had a trading volume of 9,714,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,063,944. C3.ai has a twelve month low of $7.68 and a twelve month high of $18.79. The stock has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.68 and a beta of 2.11. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.81.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $52.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.06 million. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 61.25% and a negative net margin of 192.10%. The business’s revenue was down 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.37) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that C3.ai will post -2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen raised C3.ai from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 11th. DA Davidson reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $7.00 target price on shares of C3.ai in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded C3.ai from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and seven have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.36.

About C3.ai

C3.ai, Inc is an enterprise artificial intelligence software company that develops applications and tools designed to help organizations use AI and machine learning to analyze data, automate processes and support business decision-making. The company’s offerings are intended for large commercial enterprises, government agencies and other organizations managing complex operational and data environments.

Its product portfolio includes the C3 AI Platform, which provides capabilities for developing, deploying and operating AI applications, as well as prebuilt enterprise applications.