Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) Shares Up 0.2% – Still a Buy?

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)’s stock price rose 0.2% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $81.66 and last traded at $79.92. Approximately 18,687,607 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 66,618,477 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.76.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on PLTR shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Palantir Technologies in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Palantir Technologies from $16.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group started coverage on Palantir Technologies in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Palantir Technologies in a research note on Friday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $72.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price target on Palantir Technologies from $28.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Palantir Technologies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.61.

Palantir Technologies Stock Up 1.6 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $73.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.69. The firm has a market cap of $187.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 412.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 2.82.

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $725.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $705.11 million. Palantir Technologies had a return on equity of 9.94% and a net margin of 18.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.03 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Palantir Technologies Inc. will post 0.19 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Heather A. Planishek sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.96, for a total transaction of $999,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 562,006 shares in the company, valued at $28,077,819.76. This represents a 3.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lauren Elaina Friedman Stat sold 10,721 shares of Palantir Technologies stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.78, for a total value of $823,158.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 100,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,748,867.94. This represents a 9.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,181,807 shares of company stock worth $1,288,448,522 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PLTR. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Palantir Technologies by 20.9% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 52,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,336,000 after buying an additional 9,109 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palantir Technologies by 20.3% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $434,000 after acquiring an additional 2,896 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Palantir Technologies by 21.5% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 449,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,382,000 after acquiring an additional 79,618 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Palantir Technologies by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 707,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,925,000 after purchasing an additional 142,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Palantir Technologies in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,587,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.65% of the company’s stock.

About Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies, Inc engages in the business of building and deploying software platforms that serve as the central operating systems for its customers. It operates under the Commercial and Government segments. The Commercial segment focuses on customers working in non-government industries. The Government segment is involved in providing services to customers that are the United States government and non-United States government agencies.