By Christine Ji and Britney Nguyen
The software company is boosting its outlook, and its CEO is cheering gains for retail investors
Palantir posted third-quarter results on Monday.
Palantir Technologies Inc. broke records once again with its third-quarter earnings as the company’s artificial-intelligence offerings drove aggressive business growth, but the stock fell in after-hours trading.
Palantir (PLTR) on Monday posted its best-ever results, reporting $1.18 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of 21 cents per share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations – analysts polled by FactSet had been anticipating $1.1 billion and 17 cents, respectively.
The company raised its full-year guidance as a result of its momentum. Palantir now anticipates around $4.40 billion in revenues for the 2025 fiscal year, up from the $4.14 billion to $4.15 billion the company had guided for in the second quarter.
Overall revenue grew 63% year over year, with much of the growth being driven by Palantir’s biggest segment, U.S. commercial, which saw sales rise by 121% year over year. Ryan Taylor, Palantir’s chief revenue and legal officer, told MarketWatch that Palantir is prioritizing the domestic market, which now comprises 75% of the business’s total revenue.
The stock initially climbed 7% in Monday’s extended session, but soon gave up those gains, and ended down 4.3%.
“As we have seen thus far this earnings season, earnings beats aren’t necessarily being rewarded owing to extended positioning and lofty expectations already baked into price,” Jake Behan, head of capital markets at Direxion, said in a note. “At this valuation, even great numbers don’t move the needle. The bar is sky high and not an easy one to clear, even for Palantir.”
The latest quarter was the fourth in a row in which Palantir’s U.S. commercial business was larger than its U.S. government segment, David Glazer, Palantir’s chief financial officer and treasurer, told MarketWatch.
Meanwhile, Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP, continues to see strong demand. Taylor said that’s because it’s “the only platform delivering transformational impact in this market.”
Palantir has been a controversial name on Wall Street due to its rich valuation – the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 253 times, according to FactSet – and its reliance on government contracts. Only 24% of the analysts covering Palantir polled by FactSet assign the stock a buy or buy-equivalent rating. But what Palantir lacks in institutional support, it makes up for with its fervent retail following, which CEO Alex Karp emphasized as a key part of what distinguishes Palantir from other software businesses.
“People who are most excited about our results in America now are average Americans,” Karp told MarketWatch.
In a shareholder letter, he said Palantir “has made it possible for retail investors to achieve rates of return previously limited to the most successful venture capitalists in Palo Alto.” Shares closed Monday above $207, after opening at $10 when the company conducted its 2020 direct listing.
The company’s earnings beat sends a strong message of continuing demand for Palantir’s products. Prior to the earnings report, Citi analyst Tyler Radke questioned whether Palantir could surpass the high expectations set by last quarter’s results, which saw the company crossing $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time.
Read: Here’s Palantir’s ‘secret sauce,’ which these analysts say can boost the stock even more
-Christine Ji -Britney Nguyen
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11-03-25 2016ET
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