C3.ai Q4 results beat estimates

Investing.com -- C3.Ai reported fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday that were better than feared as growing demand for enterprise AI applications bolstered new business wins.   

C3 Ai Inc (NYSE:AI) fell more than 21% following the report. 

The AI software maker reported an adjusted loss of $0.13 on revenue of $72.4 million, topping estimates for a loss of $0.17 on revenue of $71.29M. 

The better-than-feared loss for the quarter comes as increasing market demand for enterprise AI led to a "substantial increase in opportunities and shorter sales cycles," the company said.

In Q4, the company closed 43 agreements, including 19 pilots, with the number of qualified enterprise opportunities targeted for closure within 12 months in its sales pipeline more than doubling in the past year.  

The average sales cycle for agreements in Q4 was 3.7 months, down from 5 months a year earlier.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2024, the company now expects an adjusted loss in a range of $50.0M to $75.0M on revenue of $295.0 to $320.0M. 

For fiscal Q1, adjusted losses from operations were guided in a range of $25.0M to $30M on revenue of between $70M to $72.5M. Analysts were forecasting Q1 revenue of $71.6M.

C3.Ai is up more than 200% year to date, riding strong investor demand for artificial intelligence-linked stocks.