C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by $0.05, FiscalAI reports. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 60.20% and a negative net margin of 187.95%.The business had revenue of $51.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 52.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Here are the key takeaways from C3.ai’s conference call:

• C3.ai posted Q4 revenue of $51.6 million, with a non-GAAP operating loss of $54.4 million and negative free cash flow of $54.8 million, underscoring continued profitability and cash burn challenges.
• Management said it has completed a major restructuring, cutting headcount from about 1,075 to roughly 700 and taking out about $135 million in annual operating costs.
• The company closed the quarter with $575.4 million in cash and marketable securities, and later noted the balance rose to $673 million after CEO Tom Siebel purchased 6.17 million shares for about $69 million.
• Leadership repeatedly characterized the business performance as a sales execution failure, saying the company has focused too narrowly and that revenue growth, RPO, and cash generation have all been hurt by weak go-to-market execution.
• For fiscal 2027, C3.ai guided to $210 million-$240 million in revenue and a non-GAAP operating loss of $128 million-$160 million, while saying it expects professional services to remain 10%-15% of total revenue and that the mix between licenses, PES, and demos is still hard to predict.

C3.ai Stock Down 1.6%

NYSE:AI opened at $10.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.15 and a beta of 2.04. C3.ai has a 52 week low of $7.68 and a 52 week high of $30.11. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $9.15 and a 200 day moving average of $11.14.

C3.ai News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting C3.ai this week:

• Positive Sentiment: C3.ai beat fiscal Q4 earnings expectations and matched revenue estimates, helping fuel a short-term rebound in investor sentiment. C3.ai Inc (AI) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Challenges and Strategic Restructuring
• Positive Sentiment: Management’s fiscal 2027 guidance and restructuring efforts suggested a path to lower cash burn and a possible return to growth later in the year. C3 AI Announces Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2026 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Investor enthusiasm was also helped by reports that founder Tom Siebel is back in a leadership role and that a cash infusion supports the turnaround effort. AI Stock Jumps 3% After-Hours — Founder Siebel Returns As CEO With $69M Cash Injection

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Thomas M. Siebel sold 369,624 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.72, for a total transaction of $3,223,121.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 722,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,298,996.64. The trade was a 33.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian sold 52,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.22, for a total value of $429,034.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 721,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,930,606.70. This trade represents a 6.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 1,610,039 shares of company stock worth $13,935,574 over the last 90 days. 26.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its stake in C3.ai by 34.8% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,513 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 4,002 shares during the period. &PARTNERS raised its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 19,723 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,689 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai during the fourth quarter worth $263,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in C3.ai during the second quarter valued at $256,000. Finally, Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in C3.ai during the second quarter valued at $234,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on AI. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of C3.ai from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $12.92.

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.