- C3.ai stock closed up nearly 25% on Thursday.
- The artificial intelligence platform grew subscription revenue and raised its outlook.
- Okta also surged more than 22% on an impressive quarter.
- Snowflake did not fare as well, diving more than 17%.
C3.ai (AI) stock advanced 24.5% on Thursday, closing just below $37, after the data platform company posted fiscal third-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates. Subscription revenue rose enough to get approval from analysts, and AI stock jetted up to levels not seen since August 2023.
Okta (OKTA), the maker of customer identification software, also watched its share price spike on a good earnings release. Adjusted earnings arrived about 25% better than expectations, and revenue of $605 million beat consensus by more than $17 million.
Snowflake (SNOW), however, was the odd man out in a day that saw severe volatility from software firms, dropping some 17% lower. The much-heralded company suffered from changes in management, as well as fiscal 2025 revenue guidance arriving at a 22% growth rate, well below fiscal 2024’s 38% growth rate.
The NASDAQ led the way on Thursday, closing up 0.9%. The S&P 500 was a bit more steady with a gain of 0.52%, while the Dow Jones added just 0.12%.
C3.ai stock news
C3.ai is still offering generous trial runs for many firms curious about its runtime platform for building and launching artificial intelligence-related applications, as well as software geared toward customer management. Still, the firm reported fiscal Q3 subscription revenue of $70.4 million compared with $57 million one year ago.
Overall, C3.ai had sales of $78.4 million — a $2.3 million beat above consensus and up 18% from the year prior. Adjusted earnings per share was $-0.13, which beat the consensus estimate by some 15 cents.
Wall Street was impressed by customer engagement figures that rose 80% from a year ago to 445. It would seem that C3.ai is starting to gain real traction in the industry.
“Government was a key area of strength with federal revenue up 100%+,” wrote analysts from Morgan Stanley.
Wedbush Securities pushed its price target on AI stock up from $35 to $40 per share.
Management raised full-year fiscal 2024 guidance up from consensus at $305.5 million to a range of $306 million to $310 million, placing the fiscal Q4 revenue midpoint at $84 million.
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C3.ai stock forecast
There are two significant factors in Thursday’s share price surge for C3.ai stock. The first is that AI stock gapped up above the $32 level. That price level has held sway since working as support in June 2023 before switching to resistance in the second half of last year. A break and close above that level is key for bulls to determine that a further uptrend is in the works.
Secondly, Thursday’s daily candle has continued to rise enough to close well above its opening price. This signifies that a volatile gap up is not reliant on the emotion of traders, and that the new price action level probably has staying power.
Traders will notice that AI stock is now entering overbought territory on the Relative Strength Index (RSI), but that doesn’t mean that a pullback is in the cards. Instead, AI stock will likely keep advancing until it reaches more common historical volume levels in the low $40s. Longer-term resistance and a sizable price target is the June 2023 resistance at $48.50.
C3.ai daily stock chart