Veteran trader overhauls Palantir stock price target after analyst review

Stephen “Sarge” Guilfoyle is never one to hold back his feelings.

If you ask the veteran trader what he thinks of the big-data-analytics company Palantir Technologies  (PLTR) , he’ll tell you in no uncertain terms.

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“Palantir is a beast,” the veteran analyst said in his TheStreet Pro column.

Palantir, co-founded by Chief Executive Alex Karp, the venture capitalist Peter Thiel and others, added around $150 billion in market value last year as investors bet on the profit potential of its government and corporate contracts and its addition to the S&P 500 in late September.

Guilfoyle noted that Palantir has no debt on its books and that he has “long believed that this firm has one of the strongest balance sheets anywhere in corporate America, especially for the firm’s size.”

Related: Veteran trader who correctly picked Palantir as top stock in 2024 reveals best stock for 2025

He said the Denver company’s operating and free cash flows have been positive and have been gaining momentum.

In December 2023 Guilfoyle, who started his career on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980s, named Palantir as his top stock pick for 2024.

“The stock ran 340% in 2024,” he said. “Huzzah. I have produced both incredible winners and embarrassing mistakes when making public my ‘stock of the year’ selections ahead of said year, and unlike most pundits, I do have skin in the game and I do follow up on my selections, win or lose.”

And then Guilfoyle did something he’d never done before. In December 2024, he selected Palantir as his stock pick again for 2025.

“I had never selected any stock two years back-to-back,” he said. “And to be honest, this was the first time I had ever selected a stock that I had already selected once, regardless of whether or not those two years were in a row.”

Wedbush analyst Ives praises Palantir

Wedbush analysts also had high words of praise for Palantir.

A team led by Dan Ives raised their price target on Palantir to $90 from $75 while keeping an outperform rating on the shares, as the firm’s current checks and growing confidence in the company’s AI strategy are key to the bull thesis on the company for 2025.

Palantir “is on a path to become the next Oracle or Salesforce over the coming years and while the valuation is expensive today, we see the Messi of AI as a core winner in the trillions of AI spend over the next few years,” the firm said, tipping its hat to the legendary Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi.

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Ives said that Palantir remains one of the firm’s top names owned in 2025 “as it’s game-changing [intellectual-property] strategy is quickly becoming a key foundational platform for enterprises heading down the AI-use-case path across verticals.” 

“New and existing customers across the commercial and federal landscapes are waiting in line to sign up for multiple aspects of the Palantir tech stack,” the firm said.

That’s as the company explains how customers can use AI tech. More organizations are “seeking to drive efficiencies on the back of AI with Palantir leading the charge,” Wedbush’s analysts said.

Ives said Wall Street was underestimating the $1 billion-plus revenue that the company’s Artificial Intelligence Program U.S. commercial business can evolve into over the next few years and the competitive moat that Karp and company have built.

“We believe the Trump administration represents an additional tailwind for Palantir with AI initiatives within the US government including the [Department of Defense] accelerating as AI remains a strategic focus on the federal front,” he said.

The analyst said that with an enhanced product portfolio of advanced AI capabilities that will be securely and responsibly deployed for the U.S. government, “Palantir also continues generating further momentum with the federal sector across various agencies.”

During his first day in office, President Donald Trump unveiled a $500 billion Project Stargate, intended to boost AI infrastructure in the U.S.

Trump made the announcement alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle  (ORCL)  founder Larry Ellison. 

“The stepped-up AI investments now being seen under the Trump administration with Project Stargate should benefit Palantir on the government vertical,” Wedbush said.

“In essence Palantir is in the sweet spot to benefit from a tidal wave of federal spending AI.”

Guilfoyle: $90 might not be the top for Palantir

Of course, not everybody was not so thrilled with Project Stargate.

 Tesla  (TSLA)  CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s biggest donor, mused on his X social media platform that “they don’t actually have the money,” referring to an OpenAI message that touted SoftBank’s participation in the venture.

 Guilfoyle reminded readers that he’s had a $90 price target on Palantir in place for months,” but we’re always glad to have other pros catch up.”

Related: Veteran trader discloses his top stock pick for 2025

Palantir is scheduled to report quarterly results on Feb. 3, and analysts expect the company to post adjusted earnings of 11 cents per share on revenue of about $777 million.

“If these numbers are realized, they would be good for earnings growth of 37.5% on revenue growth of 28%,” he said. “Since the start of the quarter, all 13 top-ranked analysts that cover the name that I can find have revised their estimates higher.”

Guilfoyle said the $90 level may end up being more of a pivot than a target and that will set up a much higher target price, possibly in the $108 to $112 range,

“But to quote the ending of the movie Gladiator,” he said, “‘…but not yet… not yet.'”

Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025

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