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

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 144,455 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 95% compared to the typical daily volume of 74,127 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of C3.ai in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on C3.ai from $23.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on C3.ai from $21.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp downgraded C3.ai from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $29.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of C3.ai from $24.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

C3.ai Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AI opened at $33.47 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.15 and a beta of 1.98. C3.ai has a 1 year low of $18.85 and a 1 year high of $45.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.10.

Insider Activity at C3.ai

In other C3.ai news, VP Merel Witteveen sold 11,132 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.95, for a total value of $389,063.40. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 4,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $144,762.90. The trade was a 72.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen M. Ward, Jr. sold 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total value of $5,250,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 546,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,952,790. This trade represents a 18.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,090,552 shares of company stock worth $41,475,697 in the last three months. Insiders own 33.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On C3.ai

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in C3.ai by 8.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,216,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,728,000 after buying an additional 178,870 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,996,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of C3.ai during the 4th quarter worth about $3,942,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of C3.ai by 12.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 844,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,460,000 after acquiring an additional 92,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in C3.ai in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,955,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

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.