Palantir Stock Is Surging On Profitability Forecast, AI Advantage: What's Going On?

Shares of data software company Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR are trading higher Tuesday after the company reported better-than-expected results, guided for continued profitability and touted its artificial intelligence advantage. Here's a look at the results and what CEO Alex Karp said following the release. 

• Q4 Revenue: $508.62 million beat $502.25 million
• Q4 EPS: $0.04 beat estimates of $0.03

Palantir reported its first-ever profitable quarter and guided for continued GAAP profitability in 2023. The company also issued a weak revenue forecast that was outshined by Karp's comments on the call. 

Palantir expects first-quarter revenue to be between $503 million and $507 million versus estimates of $520 million. Palantir guided for full-year 2023 revenue in a range of $2.18 billion to $2.23 billion versus estimates of $2.29 billion.

Palantir also saw strong customer count trends, particularly in its U.S. commercial business, which increased 79%% year-over-year.

In a letter to shareholders, Karp highlighted the company's AI advantage as a strong driver of increased demand, which he said has picked up in recent months. 

"We anticipate that this new source of demand will contribute to our growth moving forward, above and beyond what we would have anticipated even late last year," Karp said.

Check This Out: Palantir CEO Alex Karp Touts Profitability, Artificial Intelligence Advantage, Acquisition Interest Following Q4 Earnings

When asked about Microsoft Corp MSFT-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT on the conference call, the Palantir CEO said the company "spent the last five years building the core infrastructure that you would need to power and train AI algorithms" and indicated Palantir is four or five years ahead of the competition.

• Mizuho analyst Matthew Broome maintained Palantir with a Neutral rating and raised the price target from $7 to $8.
• Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges maintained Palantir with a Neutral rating and lowered the price target from $9 to $8.

PLTR Price Action: Palantir has a 52-week high of $14.86 and a 52-week low of $5.84.

The stock was up 18.3% at $9 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Cory Doctorow from Flickr.