One of the breakout stars of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is a data analytics software company Palantir Technologies (PLTR 3.17%). Since its IPO in late 2020, Palantir shares have generated a 488% return as of the market close on November 7.

But to be fair, Palantir’s journey has not been without challenges and drama. Despite a successful public debut a few years ago, Palantir’s shares tumbled for much of 2022 against the backdrop of a tough macroeconomy. With shares trading as low as $6 in early 2023, Palantir’s prospects didn’t look bright. The company had virtually no private sector presence and growth in its government contracts slowed.

However, the launch of the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) in April 2023 led to a comeback that even Rocky would appreciate.

Two of Palantir’s first bulls on Wall Street: Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities and Mariana Perez Mora of Bank of America — have placed price targets of $57 and $55 on Palantir, respectively. AI has become a catalyst of epic proportions for Palantir, and as of this writing, its shares are trading at an all-time high of around $56.

While Palantir’s current stock price doesn’t leave much room for percentage growth versus Ives and Perez Mora’s targets, it’s more important for investors to understand the reasons behind these analyst upgrades and extrapolate what these themes might suggest for the company’s future. future of Palantir. .

Let the good times roll

Palantir CEO Alex Karp began his third-quarter shareholder letter with a short statement stating that “this is just the beginning.”

That’s quite a bold statement when your company just achieved 30% year-over-year revenue growth, closed more than 100 deals worth at least $1 million, and generates positive net income and free cash flow on a consistent basis. At some point you would expect the momentum to slow down.

But apparently Karp, Ives and Perez Mora are calling for even more growth. Let’s take a look at what’s driving this optimistic outlook and explore how Palantir’s AI journey is unfolding.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why Wall Street is so bullish

One of the ways Palantir has been able to differentiate itself from the competition since launching AIP is through a unique lead generation strategy. In fact, Palantir hosts immersive seminars called “boot camps” where potential customers can demonstrate the company’s software suites. This hands-on approach helps leads actually identify a use case around AI and understand how Palantir’s software can help alleviate their pain points.

Image source: Palantir Investor Relations.

The growth trends shown above demonstrate how Palantir’s boot camps have helped the company grow its customer base while diversifying its revenue base, underlined by rapid private sector penetration.

However, as Karp and Wall Street suggest, there are many reasons to believe this growth is still in its early stages.

For starters, Palantir has quietly signed more deals related to the US military’s AI efforts. While government contracts are a fairly unwieldy affair, Palantir shows that the defense sector is an important and evolving part of the AI ​​landscape – an opportunity I would encourage investors to lose sleep over.

In addition, the company has entered into a number of strategic alliances this year Microsoft, Oracle, MetaplatformsAnd Amazon that have yet to bear fruit.

Are Palantir Shares a Buy Now?

The chart below compares Palantir to a cohort of leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies on a price-to-sales (P/S) basis. The obvious conclusion from the analysis below is that Palantir is the most expensive stock among this set of comparable stocks. But on a more subtle note, Palantir’s price action has seen meaningful valuation expansion especially in recent months.

PLTR PS Ratio data according to YCharts

Given the momentum fueling Palantir stock right now, I’m not surprised to see the stock hit the price targets Ives and Perez Mora put forward. I think investors should worry less about specific prices at this stage and focus more on the long-term story surrounding Palantir.

Defense technology is still largely an untapped market, and many of Palantir’s big tech partnerships are not yet operating at scale. I believe that as time goes on, customer adoption of AIP will continue to accelerate across the company’s commercial and public sector businesses as more use cases are discovered through AIP. Additionally, relationships with many of the most influential players in AI have made me optimistic about Palantir’s role in the future of AI.

While I think the stock is pricey right now, I see further gains ahead and am aligned with expectations that Palantir’s journey is still beginning.