C3.ai Sees Stronger Revenue But Analyst Concerned Over Profitability And Scale

Benzinga
28 Feb

JP Morgan analyst Pinjalim Bora maintained an Underweight rating on C3.ai, Inc (NYSE:AI) with a price target of $27, down from $28.

C3.ai reported a third-quarter revenue of $98.8 million, up 26%. The revenue total beat a Street consensus estimate of $98.1 million.

Also Read: EchoStar Q4: $3.97 Billion Revenue, Narrows Pay-TV Subscriber Losses, Focuses On High-Quality Users, Wireless Growth

The company had an adjusted net loss of 12 cents per share, which beat a street consensus estimate of 25 cents per share.

C3.ai expects fourth-quarter revenue of $103.6 million-$113.6 million, versus the consensus estimate of $108.6 million.

Bora updated his AI model to include the third quarter of fiscal 2025 results. The price target is based on ~7 times EV/calendar 2026E revenue (unchanged) relative to infrastructure software companies growing FTM revenue over 20%, trading at ~10x EV/calendar 2026E revenue.

The lower price target reflects subpar core growth, adjusted for demo licenses.

The analyst noted that AI should trade at a significant discount to this group as growth is similar but at a much smaller scale for AI. Also, AI is extremely unprofitable compared to the comps.

While AI will likely grow FTM revenue at a comparable growth level (23% versus 24% for the comps’ median), AI is 80% smaller than the median scale of the comp group.

Additionally, AI will likely have (14%) FTM free cash flow margin driving a growth plus margin profile of 9%, versus comps at +22% Unlevered Free Cash Flow (UFCF) margin driving a growth plus margin of +46%. Furthermore, the calendar 2025 adjusted operating margin for AI will likely be (24%) versus comps at +15%.

Price Action: AI stock is down 6.24% at $25.05 at last check Thursday.

Also Read:

  • Warner Bros Q4 Earnings: Studios Revenues Grow 16%, Max Subscribers Surge, Eyes 150 Million Subscribers By 2026

Photo via Shutterstock

Latest Ratings for AI

Date Firm Action From To
Mar 2022 Deutsche Bank Downgrades Hold Sell
Mar 2022 Wedbush Maintains Outperform
Mar 2022 JMP Securities Maintains Market Outperform

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