07 Sep The company with the ticker ‘AI’ doesn’t appear to be benefiting from AI boom, Bank of America says
C3.ai , artificial intelligence’s namesake in the stock market, appears not to be getting a boost as the technology takes off, according to Bank of America’s analysis of the company’s Wednesday earnings. “Results do not suggest that C3 is benefiting from growing demand for AI,” analyst Brad Sills said of the company, which trades under the ticker AI. “Metrics such as average total contract value … and largely unchanged FY24 revenue outlook do not point to any meaningful AI tailwinds either.” AI is the hottest trend going in the stock market with chipmaker Nvidia leading the way, up more than 200% this year. Nvidia has justified that run in part by reporting two quarters of earnings that were much higher than what Wall Street expected. And Nvidia said that this quarter’s sales would be up 170% from a year ago. Meanwhile, C3 is up more than 180% this year. And the company, which bills itself as a enterprise AI application software maker, did beat consensus estimates of analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv, on both lines in the quarter. But it only reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance, which to Sills “does not suggest C3 benefiting from AI tailwinds.” The shares were down more than 11% on Thursday. AI 1D mountain C3.ai’s Thursday sell-off Sills reiterated his underperform rating after the release. His $18 price target implies the stock will tumble 42.8% from Wednesday’s close. C3 CEO Thomas Siebel said on the company’s earnings call Wednesday night that it is benefiting from the trend. “Following the release of ChatGPT in November of 2022, we’re seeing a dramatic increase in demand for enterprise AI adoption,” he said on the call. “In Q1, we experienced strong traction with our enterprise AI applications and especially strong traction with C3 Generative AI.” But Bank of America is waiting to see that enthusiasm transfer into higher sales. Sills called the company’s fifth straight quarter of declines in GAAP remaining portfolio obligations concerning. RPO, a measure representing total future amounts due from a customer on current contracts, is a key metric for the industry. The analyst said this sluggishness could be somewhat tied to C3’s transition to custom pricing. But he said it can also be connected to a lack of progress on pilot and expansion deals, with little interest from companies outside of the energy and defense industries. While Sills said subscription revenue growth improved in the quarter, he warned that it likely wouldn’t indicate a reacceleration for the business in the next several quarters. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom and John Melloy contributed to this report