BOX (NYSE:BOX – Get Free Report) and C3.ai (NYSE:AI – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and profitability.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
86.7% of BOX shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of C3.ai shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of BOX shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.8% of C3.ai shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
BOX has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, C3.ai has a beta of 2.11, suggesting that its share price is 111% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings for BOX and C3.ai, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| BOX | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2.25 |
| C3.ai | 7 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1.62 |
BOX presently has a consensus price target of $37.80, indicating a potential downside of 4.42%. C3.ai has a consensus price target of $9.36, indicating a potential downside of 17.32%. Given BOX’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe BOX is more favorable than C3.ai.
Profitability
This table compares BOX and C3.ai’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| BOX | 10.59% | -20.97% | 4.47% |
| C3.ai | -192.10% | -61.25% | -49.03% |
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares BOX and C3.ai”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| BOX | $1.23 billion | 4.40 | $115.38 million | $0.69 | 57.32 |
| C3.ai | $232.38 million | 7.84 | -$470.37 million | ($3.08) | -3.68 |
BOX has higher revenue and earnings than C3.ai. C3.ai is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BOX, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
BOX pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. C3.ai pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.9%. BOX pays out 173.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. C3.ai pays out -29.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. C3.ai is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
BOX beats C3.ai on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About BOX
Box, Inc. engages in the provision of an enterprise content platform that enables organizations to securely manage enterprise content while allowing easy, secure access and sharing of this content from anywhere, on any device. Its products include cloud content management, IT and admin controls, Box Governance, Box Zones, Box Relay, Box Shuttle, and Box KeySafe. The company was founded by Aaron Levie, Dylan Smith, Jeff Queisser, and Sam Ghods in March 2005 and is headquartered in Redwood City, CA.
About C3.ai
C3.ai, Inc. operates as an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software company in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides C3 AI platform, an application development and runtime environment that enables customers to design, develop, and deploy enterprise AI applications; C3 AI Ex Machina for analysis-ready data; C3 AI CRM, an industry specific customer relationship management solution; and C3 Generative AI Product Suite that enables to locate, retrieve, and present information. It also offers C3 AI applications, including C3 AI Inventory Optimization, a solution to optimize raw material, in-process, and finished goods inventory levels; C3 AI Supply Network Risk, which identifies emerging inbound and outbound risks across the network; C3 AI Sustainability Suite, which helps to decrease greenhouse gas emission; C3 AI Production Schedule Optimization, a solution for scheduling production; C3 AI Financial Services Suite, which helps to minimize compliance risks; and C3 AI Energy Management solution. In addition, it offers integrated turnkey enterprise AI applications for oil and gas, chemicals, utilities, manufacturing, financial services, defense, intelligence, aerospace, healthcare, and telecommunications market. It has strategic partnerships with Baker Hughes in the areas of oil and gas market; Booz Allen to provide solutions to government, defense, and intelligence sectors; Raytheon; and AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The company was formerly known as C3 IoT, Inc. and changed its name to C3.ai, Inc. in June 2019. C3.ai, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.
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