C3.ai Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AI)

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders bought 108,092 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 78% compared to the typical volume of 60,840 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AI. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group reissued a “reduce” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on C3.ai from $16.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on C3.ai from $10.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets set a $7.00 price target on C3.ai in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $15.87.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In other news, Chairman Thomas M. Siebel sold 511,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.66, for a total transaction of $5,966,795.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman owned 722,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,422,740.92. This represents a 41.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jim H. Snabe bought 25,000 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $9.00 per share, with a total value of $225,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 395,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,555,000. The trade was a 6.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,836,610 shares of company stock valued at $21,262,517 in the last 90 days. 26.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AI. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of C3.ai by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,813,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,129,000 after purchasing an additional 156,925 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its position in C3.ai by 2,831.4% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 554,472 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,615,000 after buying an additional 535,557 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in C3.ai during the second quarter worth about $556,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in C3.ai during the second quarter worth about $1,063,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of C3.ai by 1,149.9% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 178,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,101,000 after acquiring an additional 164,537 shares during the last quarter. 38.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More C3.ai News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Unusual call-option activity — Investors bought roughly 108,092 call options on Friday (about a 78% jump vs. typical daily call volume). Heavy call buying can signal bullish, short-term speculation or positioning ahead of potential positive catalysts; it can lift near-term price and implied volatility.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategy tightening may improve conversions — C3.ai is narrowing its AI pilot approach to focus on higher-value deployments aimed at better conversion rates and clearer ROI for enterprise customers, which could improve future revenue visibility and deal economics if execution succeeds. C3.ai Tightens AI Pilot Strategy
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider selling by the chairman — Chairman Thomas Siebel disclosed multi-day sales totaling several hundred thousand shares (transactions on March 17–18 totaling millions of dollars). Large insider reductions, especially by a founder-level figure, are generally viewed negatively by the market and can pressure the stock. Chairman Sells $1.9M in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Investor litigation probe — Pomerantz LLP has opened an investigation on behalf of C3.ai investors, a development that can increase legal and reputational risk and weigh on sentiment until resolved. Pomerantz Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst consensus and ratings are weak — Recent analyst coverage shows a consensus “Reduce” rating and continued price-target cuts, reflecting skepticism on near-term revenue and profitability recovery; this contributes to selling pressure. Consensus “Reduce” Rating

C3.ai Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of AI opened at $8.47 on Friday. C3.ai has a 12-month low of $7.72 and a 12-month high of $30.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.69 and a beta of 2.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.14.

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.40) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by ($0.11). C3.ai had a negative return on equity of 55.40% and a negative net margin of 141.35%.The firm had revenue of $53.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $75.91 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.12) earnings per share. C3.ai’s revenue for the quarter was down 46.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that C3.ai will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.