C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $32.81, but opened at $35.28. C3.ai shares last traded at $34.42, with a volume of 2,369,160 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AI shares. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of C3.ai from $23.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of C3.ai to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of C3.ai from $21.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered C3.ai from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price objective on C3.ai from $40.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, C3.ai currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

C3.ai Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.41 and a beta of 2.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.39 and a 200 day moving average of $28.86.

Insider Transactions at C3.ai

In related news, CFO Hitesh Lath sold 11,339 shares of C3.ai stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $476,238.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,742. The trade was a 93.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Stephen M. Ward, Jr. sold 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total value of $5,250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 546,495 shares in the company, valued at $22,952,790. The trade was a 18.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,078,552 shares of company stock worth $41,117,617 in the last quarter. 33.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in C3.ai by 8.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,216,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,728,000 after purchasing an additional 178,870 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in C3.ai during the 2nd quarter worth $3,465,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in C3.ai by 12.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in C3.ai in the third quarter valued at about $1,955,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of C3.ai by 679.8% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 87,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,500,000 after acquiring an additional 75,923 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.96% of the company’s stock.

C3.ai Company Profile

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.