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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 157,547 call options on the company. This is an increase of 115% compared to the typical daily volume of 73,164 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on AI shares. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Oppenheimer set a $10.00 price target on C3.ai in a research report on Friday. DA Davidson reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $13.00 price target on shares of C3.ai in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of C3.ai in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $19.00.

C3.ai Price Performance

Shares of AI stock traded down $1.26 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.00. The company had a trading volume of 15,328,128 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,263,627. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.07. C3.ai has a twelve month low of $10.90 and a twelve month high of $35.98.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.08. C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 46.51% and a negative net margin of 108.06%.The firm had revenue of $75.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $74.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.06) EPS. C3.ai’s quarterly revenue was down 20.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In related news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 15,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total transaction of $216,303.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 223,120 shares in the company, valued at $3,208,465.60. This trade represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Stephen Bradley Ehikian sold 234,918 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.56, for a total transaction of $3,185,488.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 924,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,530,443.44. This trade represents a 20.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 1,916,218 shares of company stock valued at $27,468,077 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of C3.ai

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new stake in C3.ai in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in C3.ai by 683.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,292 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in C3.ai by 76.4% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. bought a new stake in C3.ai during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 66.1% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

C3.ai Company Profile

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.