C3.ai (AI) 2021 Q1 Financial Results

C3.ai Inc. (NYSE:AI) started its journey in 2009 by offering cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) tools to energy firms. Today, the company serves various clients across government, industrial, and commercial sectors. C3.ai’s software allows its customers to streamline their operations, reduce expenses, and make decisions based on data.

The company recently announced better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter. C3.ai reported a loss of $24.5 million, or 24 cents per share for the three months ended April 30, narrower than the loss of $30.2 million, or 82 cents per share in the comparable period of 2020. Analysts, on average, were expecting C3.ai to report a loss of 34 cents per share.

Revenue for the quarter jumped 26 percent on a year-over-year basis to $52.3 million, beating the consensus forecast of $50.6 million. Subscription revenue came in at $43.1 million, up 17 percent from $36.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

Speaking on the results, CEO Thomas Siebel said, “We achieved strong business and financial results in the fourth quarter and full fiscal year, as we advance our leadership position as the enterprise AI application software pure play. The enterprise AI software market is rapidly growing, and we see accelerating interest in enterprise AI solutions across industries, geographies, and market segments. We are aggressively investing to extend our product and technology leadership and to expand our market-partner ecosystem and associated distribution capacity. As we continue to execute on delivering high-value outcomes for customers, we are increasingly well-positioned to establish a global market leadership position in enterprise AI application software. Bottom line, performance was strong across the board and we are planning for accelerating growth in the coming year.” (see 10 best artificial intelligence stocks to buy)

C3.ai also issued its revenue outlook for the first quarter. The company is anticipating revenue in the range of $50 million to $52 million for the current quarter, in line with analysts’ average estimate of $50.8 million.