Palantir’s stock returns sharply to large volume after the six-day Selloff

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Palantir Technologies

shares lost their six-day losing streak with a sharp rebound rally on Friday. The stock, which has always been volatile, fell more than 30% in six days, disappointed by the company’s fourth-quarter financial results and the recent expiration of the investment period after the IPO.

The Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column points out on Friday that the stock was embraced by the Reddit WallStreetBets crowd, the same group of individual investors who managed

GameStop

shares (ticker: GME) last month parabolically higher.

On Tuesday, Palantir (PLTR) posted revenue of $ 322 million for the December quarter, up 40% from a year ago and well ahead of the $ 300.7 million street consensus. The company reported a non-GAAP earnings of six cents per share, ahead of the Street Consensus at two cents. On a GAAP basis, the company lost eight cents per share. Palantir said government customer revenue was $ 190 million, up 85% from a year earlier, while commercial revenue was $ 132 million, just 4%

The big data analytics firm said it expects revenue to grow 45% for the first quarter. Palantir continues to expect revenue growth of more than 30% for the full year, announcing a new $ 2025 target of more than $ 4 billion.

Street reaction to the results was mixed. As reported on Wednesday, the share was upgraded to earnings by

Goldman Sachs

to buy from Neutral, with a new price target of $ 34, while William Blair goes from Market Perform to Underperform, claiming that the stock does not price sufficient risks. Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke reiterates its $ 15 sales rating and target, claiming that “the stock is too high due to the narrowing of growth drivers and increased quality issues with higher government exposure.”

Credit Suisse analyst Brad Zelnick reiterated his Underperform rating this week, setting a $ 20 price target. He wrote in a research note that the fact that the company achieved the estimates for the quarter but did not advance the 2021 lead remains a long question about the possible extent of the slowdown in growth in the second half. ‘And he adds that the lack of margin guidelines for the whole year’ raises the question of the sustainability of recent margin expansion as Covid savings return [like many IT services companies, the company reduced travel spending during the pandemic] and the company invests aggressively in direct sales. ”

Trading activity in this stock rose this week before the expiration of Thursday. Nearly 308 million shares traded on Thursday, the highest total, except on the day the share was listed on September 30, when 339 million shares changed hands. Friday will be the fourth day in a row with the trading of at least 149 million shares.

Palantir shares opened for trading at $ 10 last year. The stock has been very volatile over the past few weeks and traded up to $ 45 on an intraday basis on January 27th. After closing at $ 38.17 on February 9, the stock turned for six days before recovering today. 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 Consensus Street Revenue for 2021.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]