Growth investors are often willing to look past a company's underwhelming bottom line if they're convinced that the business has a promising future and path forward. C3.ai (AI -4.50%) is an artificial intelligence (AI) company that has captivated many investors in recent years due to the potential for this mid-cap stock to be the next big tech company.
C3.ai isn't profitable, but that hasn't stopped the stock from soaring in value in recent years. Investors are bullish on its long-term prospects, given the company's varied AI solutions, which can attract customers from many different industries. Recently, the company announced a huge partnership and growth opportunity, which its CEO is extremely excited about -- could this be a reason to load up on the AI stock today?
Will this be C3.ai's "most significant event"?
C3.ai reported its latest earnings numbers in December. But a lot of the noise around the company of late has to do with a partnership it announced with tech giant Microsoft. A month earlier, the two companies announced a "strategic alliance" in which the two businesses will work together to increase the adoption of AI in enterprises.
Many companies may be on the fence about whether AI will provide sufficient value for their organizations to take on what may prove to be a costly endeavor. This alliance will have the two companies working together to win over potential customers. C3.ai will have its enterprise AI applications available on Microsoft's Azure marketplace, which will result in significant exposure and possibly more sales for C3.ai as a result.
On C3.ai's recent earnings call, CEO Tom Siebel referred to this agreement as "the most significant event of the quarter and perhaps the most significant event in the company's history." Siebel believes this will shorten the company's sales cycles and be a huge catalyst for the business moving forward.
This certainly has the potential to accelerate C3.ai's growth rate, but revenue growth alone hasn't been enough to send the company's shares much higher in recent months. The big determination of whether this may be a turning point for the business is whether the deal gets C3.ai on a path to profitability.
C3.ai's top line has been rising, but profits remain elusive
As C3.ai has been chasing sales growth, profitability has taken a back seat. Previously, Siebel said it would be a "mathematical certainty" that the business would become profitable as it scales its operations, but despite the growth, there hasn't been much progress on the bottom line.
AI Revenue (Quarterly) data by YCharts
Instead, C3.ai's bottom line has been trending downward as it has been growing its sales. While the Microsoft partnership may help grow the top line, the big question is whether it will improve C3.ai's margins and prospects for profitability or if it will result in greater expenses and losses.
C3.ai's stock has fallen by around 20% over the past month as investors may be growing concerned with the company's results. Even though the business has been posting record sales numbers, without a path to profitability, investors may be questioning whether the business is truly going in the right direction.
Is C3.ai stock a good buy today?
C3.ai has been a volatile stock to own over the past year, and while the news of the recent Microsoft partnership did initially give it a boost, that proved to be a short-lived rally. Without some significant revenue and profit growth to back up the claims that this partnership is such a momentous event for the company, the stock may continue to struggle in the months ahead.
While the agreement may prove to be a significant revenue driver for the business, investors may not be as excited until there's a more noticeable improvement on the bottom line. And until that happens, the safest option may be to wait on the sidelines, as C3.ai remains a risky buy right now.
