Palantir: AI Leadership and Rising Analyst Expectations

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) continues to defy expectations. The polarizing technology stock is up approximately 8.5% since May 12. Some of the bullish sentiment came from the tariff pause between the United States and China that lifted all technology stocks.

However, PLTR stock received a separate catalyst when Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) raised its price target to $150 from $125.

Analysts increasing their price targets for Palantir isn’t a new story. However, the Bank of America news is the latest in a series of increased price targets since Palantir reported earnings on May 5.

That means the floor for Palantir stock is moving higher, even as institutional investment is still catching up to the price targets.

Palantir’s Ontology Helps Companies Map Their Data

By itself, saying that Palantir’s ontology helps a company map its data may seem like a “so what” argument. However, company data is often messy and in 2025, the volume of data being created is growing exponentially every day.

Not only is the volume of data impossible to comb through efficiently, but you’re also dealing with different areas of the company with different access and permissions. Palantir’s ontology breaks through those barriers to allow AI agents to do their work. Keep that last part in mind. Palantir doesn’t replace AI. It’s helping make AI work the way organizations need it to work.

The reason this is important goes directly to why Bank of America raised its price target for Palantir stock. In lifting its target, the analyst noted, “While there’s some value for general tools, we continue to remind investors Palantir’s value is creating outcome-focused bespoke AI-enabled products, at scale...We see PLTR as the market definer for organizations leveraging AI to drive accelerated tangible results.”

Institutional Investors Are Still Catching Up to PLTR Stock

In the past nine months, Palantir has been added to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100. The expectation was that institutional buying would ensue. According to the Institutional Ownership for Palantir stock on MarketBeat, institutional buying heavily outweighed selling in the third quarter of 2024.

However, in the last two quarters, the gap between the buyers and sellers has narrowed. That’s keeping institutional ownership around 45%. That compares favorably to a company like Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL), which has about 42% institutional ownership as of this writing. For Palantir, the institutional buying is spread out with Vanguard being the largest institutional shareholder with about 8% of the stock.

That might have investors believing that insiders control much of Palantir’s stock, but that’s not accurate. Insiders only own about 5% of the company’s stock. In fact, the top 25 shareholders in Palantir collectively control less than half of PLTR shares.

That leaves retail investors, who own around 43% of PLTR stock. That doesn’t account for the size of Palantir’s moves, but it reminds us that buyers need sellers, and many retail investors are comfortable hanging on to their shares.

The Tug-of-War Will Continue With PTLR Stock

With over 2.3 billion shares outstanding, there are plenty of Palantir shares that can be bought. However, at around $125 per share, neither retail nor institutional investors have much appetite for chasing the stock.

The bull case is that Palantir continues to attract customers from both the government and commercial sides. Plus, the company has a clear leadership position in AI, which is forming a widening moat.

On the other hand, the bears have the valuation card. It’s not that they don’t believe the company will grow; it’s more a belief that its growth is already priced in, and then some.

That leaves the analysts. Higher price targets continue to raise the floor on PLTR stock. The consensus price was in the $40s a year ago. It was in the high $60s to end 2024. Today, it sits around $83. That still could mean a 33% drop, but shareholders endured that drop at the beginning of this year.

With the company not due to report earnings until August, PLTR stock could chop around this summer. That means macroeconomic news about tariffs and taxes will probably play a larger role in price movement than company-specific news. However, with analyst sentiment on the rise, one or two new contracts could send the stock to new highs.

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