Palantir made headlines in early Feb 2025 after its share price hit a record high on the back of earnings that far exceeded analysts expectations. The rally took the company into mega-cap status, shared by the likes of McDonalds and American Express.

Even more remarkable is the fact that PLTR’s stock price rose 10x in just two years. But what does the company do, why is it garnering so much attention, and what are the potential risks associated with its stock?

Latest Palantir Developments Investors Should Note ^[1]

Let’s break down Palantir’s latest price action for starters.

On 5 Feb, PLTR rose 23.99% during trading, marking one of the most significant single-day increases in the stock’s history.

The spike was powered by the company’s Q4 earnings report; in the last three months of 2024, Palantir made USD 827.5 million in revenue, far exceeding Wall Street estimates of USD 777.5 million. Crucially, this represents a 36% increase over the same time last year.

Earnings-per-share for Q4 came in at USD 0.14, higher than the expected USD 0.11.

Not only is Palantir making more money than expected, the company has shown glowing results in other metrics. This includes:

– A 400% increase in profitability year-on-year, with earnings-per-share for the entire year coming in at USD 0.41 compared to USD 0.08 for 2023.

– Adjusted free cash flow of USD 517 million, meaning a healthy sum of funds to reinvest in company growth.

– Strong and consistent growth with earnings that have outperformed Wall Street expectations nine quarters in a row.

Palantir’s guidance for 2025 paints an enticing picture, with the company expecting revenue in Q1 2025 of USD 858 million to USD 862 million, 26% higher than analysts expectations of USD 797.85 million.

For the entire 2025, Palantir expects total revenue of USD 3.74 billion to USD 3.76 billion; this is once again higher than analysts’ estimates of USD 3.54 billion. With such a strong outlook, it looks likely that the company’s growth is not slowing down anytime soon.

About Palantir

Palantir Technologies Inc. specialises in big data analytics using AI-driven methodologies. The company develops platforms that help organisations integrate, analyse and understand vast amounts of data, facilitating decision-makers in gaining critical insights. It has become a key player in multiple industries, including government, defense and healthcare. [2]

Unlike other AI companies, Palantir does not believe relying solely on AI itself is sufficient to defeat an adaptive adversary. Instead, Palantir proposes using human intelligence to examine data from many sources – an approach known as intelligence augmentation.

History of the Company ^[3,4]

According to SEC filings, Palantir was incorporated by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in 2003. The company struggled to attract investors in its early years, with only a USD 2 million injection from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Up until 2008, the company was kept afloat with USD 30 million invested by Thiel himself and his venture capital fund.

Palantir entered its first expansion phase between 2010 and 2012. Notable successes during this time included a partnership with content-driven technology conglomerate Thomson Reuters; acknowledgement from then-Vice President Joe Biden on Palantir’s integral role in detecting and fighting fraud among stimulus claimseekers; and an expansion of Palantir’s deployment by the White House.

Between 2013 and 2016, it was revealed that Palantir had built up a large government client base, serving at least 12 groups, including the CIA, NSA, FBI, CDC, and the armed forces such as the Marine Corps and the Air Force. By Nov 2014, the company was valued at USD 15 billion, rising to USD 20 billion by Dec 2015.

In 2020, Palantir’s next milestone was when it became one of four technology companies to work with the US government on COVID-19 efforts. Using Palantir data technology, the company helped track and contain the pandemic; this was soon replicated by several other countries by April 2020.

In July 2020, Palantir applied for a public listing, eventually going public on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct public offering on Sep 30.

In Dec that year, Palantir was awarded a USD 44.4 million contract by the FDA – this boosted its share price by around 21%, cementing the company as a forerunner in the AI and data space.

Business Segments

Today, Palantir Technologies operate several business arms, as follows:

Palantir Gotham

An evolution of Palantir’s work in the US intelligence community, Gotham is an AI-driven platform designed for defense and intelligence operations. It has demonstrated the capability to track adversary troop movements, perform geospatial analysis, and prediction and to analyze multiple types of intelligence. Gotham is widely used by several intelligence and defence agencies in the US, as well as by foreign customers such as the Ukraine military.

Palantir Foundry

Foundry is Palantir’s software platform designed to support the needs of commercial and civil government sectors. It gained widespread popularity in the medical community due to its deployment to support COVID-19 management efforts in the US and UK. By integrating several data sources and streams Foundry provided agencies and caseworkers with higher quality information that supported better decision making.

Palantir Apollo

Described as a continuous delivery system, Apollo manages and deploys Gotham and Foundry. The platform works by orchestrating updates to configurations and software platforms using a micro-service architecture. Apollo facilitates Palantir’s move towards a software-as-a-service business model, helping it to distinguish itself as more than just a consulting firm.

PLTR Share Price Performance in the Past 1 Year ^[5]

PLTR recently came into the spotlight thanks to its stellar price performance towards the end of 2024. In the past 12 months, the stock went from USD 16.72 to USD 101.36, a staggering 6x increase!

The stock languished throughout most of 2024, and only started showing signs of life in September 2024, when a slight increase was seen between then and November 2024.

However, the real action only began after the release of its Q4 earnings report on Feb 3, 2025. This proved to be the watershed moment with the report announcing revenue growth of 36% Y/Y, U.S. revenue growth of 52% Y/Y, and FY 2025 revenue guidance of 31%.

Here’s PLTR’s zoomed price chart zoomed into the most recent six months. As you can see, market reaction to Palantir’s outstanding earnings report was immediate with the stock price jumping from USD 83.74 to USD 103.83 within a day.

Prior to the rally, investor sentiment seemed to be softening, with a near-13% drop over the first two weeks of Jan 2025. In hindsight, corrections such as these might be taken as normal given the company’s young age.

Importantly, Palantir is highly confident in its near-term prospects, signalling revenue growth of a further 31% for 2025. Investors should expect hype around PLTR to continue heating up, with corresponding price action to come.

Trading information for PLTR

Conclusion

PLTR has attracted attention, particularly in light of its role in AI technology. It’s important to remember that Palantir isn’t just another AI stock – it instead builds AI platforms that aim to enhance human decision-making, which may lead to a different growth trajectory compared to its peers.

After the recent surge in its share price, PLTR is currently trading at a high valuation, with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 185x. As a result, this stock may not appeal to value investors, and some analysts expect its elevated stock price could experience a correction in the near term [6].

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