What happened Shares of C3.ai (NYSE: AI) plummeted today, down by 13% as of 11:15 a.m. EST, after the company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings results. This was the artificial intelligence (AI) specialist's first earnings release as a public company following its initial public offering (IPO) in December. So what Revenue in the fiscal third quarter, which ended Jan. 31, was $49.1 million, beating the consensus estimate of $47.3 million in sales. That top line included $42.7 million in subscription revenue and $6.4 million in professional services revenue. The enterprise AI company posted a net loss per share of $0.23, which was worse than the $0.19 per share in adjusted net losses analysts were modeling for. Adjusted operating loss for the quarter was $11.9 million. Image source: Getty Images. "We continue to establish our leadership as the only enterprise AI software pure play," CEO Thomas M. Siebel said in a statement. "This is a large and rapidly growing market; we continue to innovate; we continue to expand our market-partner ecosystem and associated distribution capacity; and we continue to demonstrate technology leadership." Now what Guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter calls for revenue in the range of $50 million to $51 million, which should result in an adjusted operating loss of $27 million to $28 million. That forecast compares favorably to the $48.4 million in revenue that Wall Street is looking for. Analysts are expecting C3.ai to post a net loss per share of $0.20 next quarter. 10 stocks we like better than C3.ai, Inc.When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and C3.ai, Inc. wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of February 24, 2021 Evan Niu, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source