Jim Cramer suggests Oracle bought on weakness C3.ai sold into strength

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday compared Oracle and C3.ai, enterprise software companies in the spotlight as Wall Street continues to flock to many stocks involved with artificial intelligence. He advised buying Oracle on weakness and selling C3.ai into strength.

“I’d be a buyer of Oracle after this pullback, because the most important parts of the business are still doing great,” he said. “As for C3.ai, if you own it, you know what? I’d take something off the table. But for the love of god, don’t try to short the darn thing, it’s got AI in its name — that’s a disaster in this market.”

Both companies reported earnings Monday night. Oracle proceeded to have its worst day of the year, and shares were down 6.67% by Tuesday’s close as its quarter failed to impress. C3.ai stock jumped during the day’s session as the company beat expectations — it declined somewhat by close, but still managed to finish up 0.12%. Cramer chalked up Oracle’s miss on “headline numbers” to one-off issues, adding that if not for a loss on a non-core investment, guidance for the current quarter may have been stronger. Its important businesses — namely cloud infrastructure and AI — are doing well, and management indicated that demand continues to outpace supply, Cramer said. He also pointed out that Oracle boasted a series of high-profile customers, including Open AI, xAI, Cohere, Nvidia and Meta.

But Cramer noted there are a large number of companies running hot just because they’re related to AI, and C3.ai could be among them. He said its revenue growth isn’t that fast, and the company is still losing money. Although some investors were impressed by C3.ai’s partnership with Microsoft, Cramer wondered if the move will actually end up hurting profitability. While the initiative could help sales, C3.ai will be making big investments to support it, he said.

To Cramer, Oracle’s pullback may be a unique chance to get in on a solid company. The quarter’s narrow miss is a result of inflated expectations, he said, stressing that the company’s AI business is promising.

“It’s a fabulous company, red-hot stock, finally giving you a better entry point,” he said. “After today’s pullback…I don’t know how much cheaper it’s going to get.”

“I have known Jim for decades and have the greatest personal admiration and professional respect. His advice to not short C3.ai seems well grounded, as many who have shorted the stock in recent years are being financially destroyed,” C3.ai CEO Tom Siebel told CNBC. “As to growth, at 29% revenue growth last quarter, C3.ai is one of the fasted growing companies in the public software company universe.”

Oracle did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Nvidia and Meta.