C3.ai, SoFi, Activision Blizzard: Monday's top trending tickers

Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal discusses movers and stocks to watch, including C3.ai, SoFi, and Activision Blizzard after EU regulators approve Microsoft's deal.

Video transcript

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DIANA KING HALL: All right, let's get you caught up on a few of the tickers that are trending on Yahoo Finance. And for that, Alexandra Canal is here with us. Allie, take us through what you're watching.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Hi, Diane. A few movers out this afternoon, one being C3.AI. I the stock is up more than 24% right now after the company's Q4 earnings came in above expectations. The company also raised its outlook and cited that interest in applying predictive analytics, quote, "has never been greater."

So this is one business that's clearly riding the AI wave, which we've seen across multiple industries. In fact, back in February, C3.AI saw shares surge 100% over the span of the month, which is when investors really started to hear more about OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Now, today's stock boost does come after some turbulent times for the company. Earlier last month, we had a short seller letter alleging that C3.AI was involved in, quote, "aggressive accounting to inflate its income statement." The company did respond with a statement of its own, writing that the letter appears to be a highly creative and transparent attempt by a self-proclaimed short seller to short the stock, publish an inflammatory letter to move the stock price downward, then cover the short and pocket the profits.

Year to date, C3.AI is up roughly 100%. But while that stock is up, SoFi Technologies is down. That's another stock I'm watching this afternoon, the stock off about 4 and 1/2 percent, a little less than that, on the heels of a Wall Street downgrade. Wedbush analyst downgrading the stock to underperform from neutral, also slashing their price target to $2.50 a share, down from the prior $5 a share.

In a note released today, the analyst said the financial services company could be, quote, "nearing a tipping point on the fee income it recognizes from loan applications and sales," warning the fee income could decline significantly. Wedbush added it thinks that SoFi's capital levels may be overstated using fair value accounting and that they don't believe SoFi will change their accounting methods in the near term.

On top of those headwinds, the analyst said they think the company may look to raise capital this year to support growth. So Wall Street just continuing to remain a bit skeptical about this stock, with shares under pressure throughout the entire day. Although they have recovered from their lows earlier this morning.

SEANA SMITH: Allie, another big Trending ticker. Here, actually two, Microsoft and Activision getting some welcome news over in the EU, an approval there. What are we seeing in the stock?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, so Activision, like you said, a top Trending Ticker on the YF site right now on the heels of that deal approval. It's up just modestly. And Microsoft shares, they're trading relatively flat right now. But the European Union's antitrust regulator saying in a press release that its approval is conditional on Microsoft's full compliance with agreements to enter long-term licensing deals that permit gaming consumers to continue accessing Activision's games, which does include "Call of Duty," a very popular one there.

Now, of course, the story, it's far from over, considering the UK rejected the same plan last month. And then over here in the US, the Federal Trade Commission is continuing to evaluate the deal. Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley and Alexis Keenan have a full explainer up on the website right now. They really dive into the nuances surrounding this potential deal. And clearly a lot of interest, as we continue to wait and see whether or not this will get the full approval necessary.

SEANA SMITH: Exactly. We've been waiting for quite some time. All right, Allie Canal, thanks so much.