CDW (NASDAQ:CDW) and C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Head to Head Survey

CDW (NASDAQ:CDW) and C3.ai (NYSE:AI) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares CDW and C3.ai’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CDW	4.70%	49.67%	8.02%
C3.ai	-141.35%	-55.40%	-45.00%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CDW and C3.ai”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CDW	$22.42 billion	0.78	$1.07 billion	$8.22	16.70
C3.ai	$389.06 million	4.00	-$288.70 million	($3.15)	-3.40

CDW has higher revenue and earnings than C3.ai. C3.ai is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CDW, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

CDW has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, C3.ai has a beta of 2.04, meaning that its share price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for CDW and C3.ai, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CDW	1	3	4	1	2.56
C3.ai	6	6	1	1	1.79

CDW presently has a consensus target price of $140.63, indicating a potential upside of 2.42%. C3.ai has a consensus target price of $12.85, indicating a potential upside of 19.90%. Given C3.ai’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe C3.ai is more favorable than CDW.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.2% of CDW shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of C3.ai shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of CDW shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.5% of C3.ai shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

CDW beats C3.ai on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CDW

CDW Corporation provides information technology (IT) solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Corporate, Small Business, and Public. The company offers discrete hardware and software products and services, as well as integrated IT solutions, including on-premise and cloud capabilities across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience, and security. It also provides hardware products comprising notebooks/mobile devices, tablets, network communications, desktop computers, collaboration, data storage and servers, and others; and software products, such as cloud solutions, software assurance, application suites, security, virtualization, operating systems, and network management. In addition, the company offers advisory and design, software development, implementation, managed, professional, configuration, partner, and telecom services, as well as warranties; delivers and manages mission critical software, systems, and network solutions; and implementation and installation, and repair services to its customers through various third-party service providers. It serves government, education, and healthcare customers; and small, medium, and large business customers. CDW Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois.

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. It also offers C3 AI applications, including C3 AI Inventory Optimization, a solution to optimize raw material, in-process, and finished goods inventory levels; C3 AI Supply Network Risk, which identifies emerging inbound and outbound risks across the network; C3 AI Sustainability Suite, which helps to decrease greenhouse gas emission; C3 AI Production Schedule Optimization, a solution for scheduling production; C3 AI Financial Services Suite, which helps to minimize compliance risks; and C3 AI Energy Management solution. In addition, it offers integrated turnkey enterprise AI applications for oil and gas, chemicals, utilities, manufacturing, financial services, defense, intelligence, aerospace, healthcare, and telecommunications market. It has strategic partnerships with Baker Hughes in the areas of oil and gas market; Booz Allen to provide solutions to government, defense, and intelligence sectors; Raytheon; and AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The company was formerly known as C3 IoT, Inc. and changed its name to C3.ai, Inc. in June 2019. C3.ai, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.