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Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Palantir Just Hit a Record High. What's the Smart Move Now?
Key Points The tech company's revenue growth rate accelerated in Q1. Palantir's commercial business in the U.S. is seeing explosive growth. The stock's wild valuation leaves no room for error. 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies › Data and artificial intelligence company Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) seemed to defy gravity in 2024. Shares more than quadrupled, rising a staggering 340%. With such an incredible rise, you'd be forgiven for guessing that the stock would cool off in 2025. But, so far, the opposite is true. Shares are heating up, rising by more than 105% year to date as of this writing. This has given the tech stock a gain of approximately 800% since the start of 2024. With shares trading at record highs. What should investors do? Does it make sense to buy more shares and hope the momentum continues? Or should investors take a more cautious approach and hold or even sell the stock? Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » Soaring sales One thing Palantir really has going for it is its top-line growth. The tech company posted first-quarter revenue of $884 million, up 39% year over year. Highlighting the company's momentum, this was an acceleration from 36% year-over-year growth in the previous quarter. Fueling Palantir's first quarter of 2025 was 55% year-over-year growth in U.S. revenue. Accounting for $628 million of the quarter's total revenue, the U.S. market is vital for Palantir. Supporting this market was a 71% year-over-year increase in commercial revenue and a 45% jump in government revenue. Zooming out to all of the company's markets, Palantir said in its first-quarter update that it closed 139 deals worth $1 million or greater, 51 deals worth at least $5 million, and 31 deals worth $10 million or more. With these strong results now behind it, management had the confidence to raise full-year revenue guidance. The company said it now expects 2025 revenue to be between $3.890 billion and $3.902 billion. This compares to revenue of about $2.9 billion in 2024. The midpoint of management's 2025 revenue guidance range, therefore, assumes about 36% growth. This impressive top-line growth is bolstering profits. Palantir's first-quarter net income was approximately $214 million, more than double its profit of about $106 million in the year-ago quarter. Comments from Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander Karp in the company's first-quarter earnings call suggest he believes the company is still in its early innings. "We are in the middle of a tectonic shift in the adoption of our software, particularly in the U.S..." Karp noted. "We are delivering the operating system for the modern enterprise in the era of AI." A valuation problem While Palantir's top-line momentum is certainly impressive, there's one big problem for investors: The market seems to have already priced in more rapid growth for years to come. Today, Palantir's market capitalization sits at about $365 billion -- more than 93 times the high end of management's guidance range for full-year 2025 revenue. Using the company's trailing-12-month sales, Palantir currently has a price-to-sales ratio of 123. This would be a high figure even for a price-to- earnings ratio. And what is Palantir's price-to-earnings ratio? It's 672. Yes, you heard that right. It's safe to say that investors have already bid up the stock to a level that prices in the most optimistic assumptions for this company. So, what should investors do? The decision is a personal one -- one that you'll have to make on your own. However, if I owned the stock, I'd sell. And for those who don't own shares, I'd avoid them like the plague at this price. Of course, I could be wrong. It's always possible that Palantir exceeds even my most bullish assumptions. Still, I believe there are likely better places with less risk and greater upside potential for investors to allocate their capital. Palantir is a great company. But expectations are simply too high. Investors would be wise to wait to see if they can buy shares at a better entry price. Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Palantir's Commercial Strategy Is Finally Paying Off
Key Points AIP powers real operational AI, not demos. Cloud partnerships are unlocking new opportunities. Palantir's commercial success isn't just theoretical, it's backed by real-world examples of customer adoption. 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies › Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) has long been recognized for its work in the shadows -- helping government agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the CIA, make sense of vast amounts of data. But for years, investors questioned whether it could ever succeed in the commercial world. While the company often emphasized commercial expansion, the numbers have historically lagged behind those of its core government business. But that's changing -- and fast. Today, Palantir's commercial business is not just growing, it's accelerating. Thanks to the interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the company's strategy, it may finally be building a sustainable and scalable engine outside public business. AIP is the inflection point Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is emerging as its breakout commercial product. Launched as the fourth platform after Gotham, Foundry, and Apollo, AIP is Palantir's answer to the rapid rise in demand for enterprise AI solutions. Commercial customers can use it to integrate large language models (LLMs) into their internal data workflows, all while preserving the security, governance, and compliance that Palantir is known for. AIP enables enterprises to build and scale AI agents with full access controls, audit trails, and encryption baked in. With AIP, customers can immediately see tangible benefits in areas such as automation, problem-solving, and workflow improvements without compromising on data and security requirements. Palantir has also rolled out AIP boot camps, five-day hands-on workshops that help companies go from zero to a working AI use case using their internal data. Customers don't just learn how to prompt -- they architect LLM-powered workflows, evaluate fine-tuning vs. prompting, and build real systems. For some customers, boot camps have helped them resolve problems they'd been wrestling with for years. Not surprisingly, these efforts have yielded tangible improvements in financial metrics. In the first quarter of 2025, U.S. commercial revenue increased 71% year over year to $255 million, and U.S. commercial total contract value (TCV) bookings rose 183% to $810 million. The U.S. commercial customer count also grew 65% to 432. Strategic cloud partnerships could be an important growth lever Beyond the launch of AIP and AIP boot camp, Palantir has also expanded its partnerships with cloud giants to integrate its AI platform within the ecosystems that customers already use. With Google Cloud, Palantir launched Foundry and AIP integrations for commercial clients in retail, healthcare, and logistics. With that, companies leverage BigQuery and other Google Cloud services while tapping into Palantir's data modeling and orchestration tools. On Amazon Web Services (AWS), Palantir is working with enterprise clients to run AIP workloads using Claude and other models. A major U.S. insurer, for example, used AIP on AWS to reduce underwriting times from two weeks to just three hours. These integrations remove key roadblocks to adoption. Besides, these partnerships are a win-win-win. Customers don't have to rip and replace their existing infrastructure. Cloud providers retain clients within their ecosystem. And Palantir gains distribution and scale. Real-world examples of customer adoption Palantir's commercial success isn't theoretical. It's happening in the field. For instance, Heineken transformed its supply chain using AI agents to optimize delivery and shipping. With the help of AIP, the team was able to build what had previously taken them three years in just three months. AIG, an insurance giant, expects the adoption of AIP to aid in AI-powered underwriting, aiming to double its five-year revenue growth rate from 10% to 20%. This example suggests that AIP not only helps improve efficiency, but also acts as an enabler in increasing the top line. Another example is Rio Tinto, which leverages the Foundry and AIP platforms to orchestrate and optimize train routes and maintenance needs for dozens of unmanned trains running 24/7. These examples show that AIP isn't just a shiny front end for AI experimentation -- it's delivering real outcomes across industries. What it means for investors Palantir's long-awaited commercial pivot is finally delivering tangible results. With AIP gaining traction and strategic partnerships expanding its reach, Palantir is transforming from a government-first software vendor into a scalable enterprise AI company. But while the growth is promising, investors should approach with measured optimism. Palantir trades at a rich valuation, reflecting high expectations for future expansion. At the time of this writing, the stock has a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 121. So, the key question is whether Palantir can sustain this momentum into the future. If the company continues to deliver strong commercial wins, and the valuation becomes more attractive, this could be a compelling long-term investment opportunity. All said, investors should keep the stock on their watchlist. Should you buy stock in Palantir Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,149!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,060,406!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,069% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Palantir's Commercial Strategy Is Finally Paying Off was originally published by The Motley Fool
Globe and Mail
10-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Palantir's Revenue Surge to $1B: Growth vs. Valuation
continues to deliver market-beating performance. PLTR stock is up more than 83% year-to-date, and there are several reasons for investor enthusiasm. The company continues to notch significant contracts for its government and commercial businesses, which have resulted in double-digit revenue increases. Since most of the company's costs are relatively fixed, a significant amount of this increased revenue flows to its bottom line. Plus, the company was elevated to the NASDAQ 100, which continues to generate interest from institutional investors. Valuation remains a major concern for investors. Currently, Palantir has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio just below 600x, with a forward P/E around 488x. The market assigns a premium to technology stocks. However, by most standard measures, PLTR stock is priced for expectations of long-term hypergrowth. Yet for all the concerns about Palantir's valuation, the company is approaching the significant milestone of generating $1 billion in revenue in a quarter. If current growth trends hold, the company could hit that milestone in the third quarter of 2025.. By itself, that achievement wouldn't justify the company's premium valuation. But it would add fuel to the bullish argument that Palantir has the means to grow into its valuation. Here's Why $1 Billion in Revenue Is Achievable In the first quarter of 2025, Palantir reported global revenue of $883.86 million. That's up from the $827.52 it reported in the fourth quarter of 2024. In percentage terms, that's an increase of 6.8%. The percentage gain was lower than the 14% gain made between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. However, it was in line with previous quarters, so let's use that as a guide. If the company notches a 6.8% gain in revenue when it reports earnings in August, it will post approximately $943.78 million. That puts it on pace to hit the $1 billion mark in revenue in the third quarter. To be fair, that's above the company's own forecast of between $934 million and $938 million. Even if we use the low end of that guidance, at a growth rate of around 7%, the company could still reach $1 billion in revenue by the end of the year. Higher Revenue Puts a Spotlight on the Company's Operating Leverage Palantir's business model is highly scalable. The company's gross margins consistently approach 80%. That means incremental revenue generates disproportionately higher profits. At this scale, operating leverage becomes a significant force. Palantir's adjusted operating margin in the first quarter was 44% and its net income margin was 26%. It's reasonable to assume that both percentages would increase. But even if they don't, $1 billion in revenue would mean approximately $260 million in GAAP net income per quarter. That's nearly 30% higher than the $203 million it generated in the first quarter. Based on those numbers, it's reasonable to project growth in GAAP EPS from around 8 cents in the last quarter to somewhere around 12 cents, which would put annual GAAP EPS at around 47 cents per share. Palantir would also see its free cash flow grow to around $380 million per quarter. Would $1 Billion in Revenue Move PLTR Stock? While achieving $1 billion in quarterly revenue would undoubtedly be a significant achievement, it won't do much to address the stock's valuation concerns. At its current price above $138, Palantir's market capitalization exceeds $300 billion. On a GAAP basis, the company trades at over 400 times forward earnings, reflecting how much optimism is already priced in. Even on an adjusted basis, excluding stock-based compensation, Palantir's forward P/E remains in the range of 150–200x earnings. That's a premium reserved for only the fastest-growing software and AI companies. Investors can make the case that Palantir is one of those companies. Investors will want to see if Palantir can continue executing on those expectations and demonstrate that $1 billion quarters are not a one-time spike. Doing so would further validate the company's long-term strategy and may attract even more institutional ownership. Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list. They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now...
RNZ News
26-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Music licenser chasing up hundreds of businesses for playing music in the workplace
All commercial businesses, including offices and trade sites, are required to pay a licencing fee, with any music played for non-personal use. (File photo) Photo: Eric Nopanen / Unsplash A music licensing organisation is chasing up hundreds of businesses a week asking them to pay-up for the tunes they are using, so that artists get what they are owed. OneMusic licences certain music for use in commerical settings like pubs, club, offices, hairdressers, gym and factories, nearly anything outside of personal use. Charges vary, playing the radio in a factory with 72 workers would cost $49 a month for licence, a gym with 500 members would pay about $104 dollars a month. OneMusic Director, Greer Davies told Checkpoint music licencing had been around for a while, and the company saw a huge lack of awareness from businesses. "It comes down to a lack of education and so our team are continually contacting businesses to educate them about the use of music and their legal requirements for music creators." "OneMusic's been around for 13 years but music licencing existed prior to that as well, and it's an it's an education that we need to take people on." Davies said they were speaking to hundreds of different businesses a week, aiming to educate them about the licencing programme. One of those business owners was a Hawkes Bay florist who told Checkpoint she was called by OneMusic to see if she was paying licence fees , which she wasn't. Francie Croy said she listened to the radio on her phone out the back of her Waipukurau shop, but the music licensing organisation told her she must buy a licence or turn the music off. "No one out front of the shop can hear it, but she said to me that I would still have a licence to have to do that because sometimes Newstalk ZB plays music." She said after the phone call she was sent another email from OneMusic. "It was a certificate thing, saying this is confirmation that you have advised us that you do not play music in your business and will not play music represented by this place. "It includes television, radio stations, apps, digital music services, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, CD's, DVD's, Blu-ray, vinyl and cassette tapes, and the list goes on." Croy said she had no idea that being charged for playing music at her business was even a possibility. All commercial businesses, including offices and trade sites, were required to pay the licencing fee, with any music played for non-personal use. Although the licence covered a large variety of circumstances, Davies said they had a specific focus on a group of businesses. "Our current focus is educating business owners across hospitality, retail, service providers and exercise." Croy said she was shocked by the request from OneMusic, which a few other businesses in the area also received. She said it seemed unlikely that someone from OneMusic had visited her small store in Waipukurau, and thought they must be sending random emails. Davies said the company had representatives visiting shops to vet whether they were playing music unlicensed. "These representatives carry out a range of tasks for us, some verifying music that's being played and identified the source of that music. They also check new businesses that may have opened in vacant locations that we've been unable to reach." She said the fees from the licence go towards artists to ensure they are paid for their music and OneMusic was partnered with APRA AMCOS and Recorded Music NZ, who pass the costs onto the artists. "Each of those organisations distribute the revenue that OneMusic earns on their behalf, but about 85 cents every dollar is distributed." Davies said for those that fail to pay for a licence there could be consequences, often resulting in fines. "Generally a business owner will understand the legal obligation and obtain the relevant licence, but reluctantly, if they don't, we will pursue and potentially end up in court." "The most recent court cases were in 2018 and 2019, and the damages were around about $15,000, $18,000." The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said OneMusic licensed copyright works and MBIE did not have oversight of the scheme. It said businesses that play music for their staff and/or customers need a licence and the licensing fees paid are distributed to producers and recording artists. "If a business does not wish to pay any licensing fee to play music, they should not play music. To do so without a licence means the copyright owner may sue the business and award damages. "A business who wishes to dispute the terms and conditions of the scheme may make an application to the Copyright Tribunal. If the Tribunal determines that the licensing scheme is unfair it may order changes," it said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
