Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) Reaches New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $84.80 and last traded at $84.12, with a volume of 21173460 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $81.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PLTR. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Palantir Technologies from $37.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Palantir Technologies in a report on Monday, January 6th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Palantir Technologies from $28.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Palantir Technologies from $16.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Palantir Technologies from $55.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.61.

Palantir Technologies Stock Up 3.8 %

The company has a market capitalization of $192.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 423.81, a PEG ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 2.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.31.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lauren Elaina Friedman Stat sold 10,721 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.78, for a total transaction of $823,158.38. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 100,923 shares in the company, valued at $7,748,867.94. This trade represents a 9.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Alexander C. Karp sold 4,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.03, for a total value of $247,635,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,432,258 shares in the company, valued at $353,967,157.74. This represents a 41.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,181,807 shares of company stock valued at $1,288,448,522 in the last ninety days. 12.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Palantir Technologies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Palantir Technologies by 96.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,512,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,069,463,000 after acquiring an additional 40,498,024 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Palantir Technologies by 52.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 47,946,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,777,568,000 after acquiring an additional 16,598,253 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Palantir Technologies by 5.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,982,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,365,000 after acquiring an additional 808,444 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Palantir Technologies by 8.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,478,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $464,192,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004,603 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Palantir Technologies by 60.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,387,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,798,000 after purchasing an additional 4,667,955 shares in the last quarter. 45.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Palantir Technologies Company Profile

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.