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Palantir Technologies began trading on the NYSE in September.
Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
Palantir Technologies
the stocks ended the six-day losing streak with a strong rebound rebound on Friday. The ever-volatile shares had fallen more than 30% in six days, dragged down by disappointment with the company’s fourth-quarter financial results and the recent expiration of the period after the investor’s IPO.
The Heard on the Street column in the Wall Street Journal notes Friday that the shares have been accepted by the Reddit crowd WallStreetBets, the same group of individual investors who pushed
GameStop
stocks (ticker: GME) parabolically higher last month.
On Tuesday, Palantir (PLTR) recorded revenue of $ 322 million for the December quarter, 40% more than a year ago and well ahead of the street consensus of $ 300.7 million. The company reported a non-GAAP profit of six cents per share, ahead of the street consensus at two cents. According to the GAAP, the company lost eight cents a share. Palantir said government customer revenue was $ 190 million, up 85% from the previous year, while commercial revenue was $ 132 million, up 4%
The massive data analytics company said it expects 45% revenue for the first quarter. Palantir continues to expect revenue growth of more than 30% year-round and announced a new revenue target of more than $ 4 billion by 2025.
The street’s reaction to the results was mixed. As reported on Wednesday, stocks improved after gains
Goldman Sachs
to buy at Neutral, with a new target price of $ 34, while William Blair went to Underperform of Market Perform, claiming that the shares do not have enough prices at risk. Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke reiterated his sell rating and the $ 15 target, stating that “stocks are overvalued given the narrowing of growth engines and the rise in quality issues with greater government exposure. “
Credit Suisse analyst Brad Zelnick reiterated his Underperform rating this week, setting a target price of $ 20. He wrote in a research note that the fact that the company exceeded quarterly estimates but did not raise the guidelines for 2021 “leaves persistent questions about the potential magnitude of the second-half growth slowdown.” And he adds that the lack of year-round margin guidance “calls into question the sustainability of the recent expansion of the margin as Covid-related savings return [like many IT services companies, the company reduced travel spending during the pandemic] and the company invests aggressively in direct sales ”.
Trading in these shares skyrocketed this week before the expiration of Thursday’s close. Nearly 308 million shares were traded on Thursday, the highest total ever made other than the share price on September 30, when 339 million shares changed hands. Friday will be the fourth day in a row with trading of at least 149 million shares.
Palantir shares opened trading at $ 10 last year. Shares in recent weeks have been highly volatile, reaching $ 45 intraday on January 27th. After closing at $ 38.17 on Feb. 9, shares were down for six days before today’s recovery. On Friday, Palantir shares rose about 13% to $ 28.37. At this level, the company has a valuation of about $ 53.5 billion, or about 36 times the agreed revenue estimates on the street by 2021.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]