Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $341,000 Stock Position in C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. has recently disclosed an increase in its investment in C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI), raising its stake by 3.4% during the third quarter of the year. After acquiring 457 additional shares, the company now holds a total of 14,078 shares in C3.ai, with a total value of $341,000 as of the end of the last reporting period.

In addition to Victory Capital, several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also adjusted their positions in C3.ai. For example, American Century Companies Inc. increased its ownership by 2.1% in the second quarter, now holding 21,447 shares valued at $621,000 after adding 432 shares. Similarly, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake by 4.3%, bringing its total to 11,165 shares worth $323,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares.

Forum Financial Management LP also boosted its investment, increasing its holdings by 4.4% and now owning 12,893 shares worth $373,000 following an acquisition of 539 shares. Rhumbline Advisers made a smaller increase of 0.5%, resulting in ownership of 125,344 shares valued at $3.63 million after an additional purchase of 572 shares.

EP Wealth Advisors LLC completed the trend by increasing its position by 5.9%, now holding 10,840 shares valued at $314,000 after acquiring 601 additional shares during the same period. Overall, institutional investors collectively own approximately 38.96% of C3.ai's stock.

Analyst Insights

C3.ai has been a focal point for various analysts. On September 5th, Wedbush downgraded their price target from $40.00 to $30.00 while maintaining an "outperform" rating. Similarly, JMP Securities reiterated its "market outperform" rating with a price target of $40.00. Meanwhile, Needham & Company LLC and Piper Sandler issued a "hold" rating, but the latter also lowered their price target from $29.00 to $24.00.

Bank of America took a more cautious approach, reducing its price target from $24.00 to $20.00 while maintaining an "underperform" rating on the stock. The overall analyst consensus shows a mixed outlook with three analysts rating the stock as a sell, five as a hold, and four as a buy, with an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $27.70.

C3.ai’s Stock Performance

As of Friday, shares of C3.ai opened at $37.18, noting a year-to-date low of $18.85 and a high of $39.88. C3.ai’s fifty-day moving average stands at $27.35, while its 200-day moving average is at $26.73. The company has a market capitalization of approximately $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of -16.31, and a beta of 1.80.

In the most recent quarterly earnings report on September 4th, C3.ai announced earnings per share of ($0.05), which surpassed the market estimate of ($0.13) by $0.08. The company posted revenue of $87.21 million for the quarter, slightly above the forecast of $86.94 million. Comparatively, this represents a 20.5% revenue increase year-over-year, despite the firm suffering a negative net margin of 85.47% and a negative return on equity of 31.28%. On average, analysts predict that C3.ai will report an EPS of -2.31 for the current year.

Company Overview

C3.ai, Inc. operates as an enterprise artificial intelligence software company across various regions including North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers a robust C3 AI platform that provides application development and runtime environments, enables customers to create, develop, and implement enterprise AI applications, along with specialized solutions such as C3 AI Ex Machina for data analysis, C3 AI CRM for customer relationship management, and the C3 Generative AI Product Suite to facilitate information retrieval and presentation.

Conclusion

C3.ai remains an attractive option for investors, despite the mixed analyst ratings and fluctuating stock performance. The growing institutional interest and the company’s extensive offerings in the AI sector suggest a potentially promising future.

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