Palantir Defies Bears, Leads S&P 500 in 2025

Key Points

• Palantir stock is trading near its new all-time high, continuing its standout 2025 rally, which is being fueled by macro and geopolitical catalysts.
• Palantir's architecture-agnostic platforms allow it to operate in both centralized and decentralized systems, including blockchain.
• Analysts remain divided, with targets ranging from $101 to $155. Yet growing institutional interest and strong retail momentum suggest PLTR stock may have more room to run.

Palantir Technologies Inc. NASDAQ: PLTR continues to defy conventional expectations. In midday trading on June 16, PLTR stock is trading at $142.05. That’s slightly down from the all-time high (ATH) made earlier in the session. However, the stock is now the best-performing S&P 500 stock, up more than 89% in 2025. 

The immediate catalyst for PLTR stock was the conflict between Israel and Iran. Investors frequently make decisions based on probability. There is no confirmation that Palantir’s technology is being used. But the company has had a presence in the country since 2021, and it’s reasonable to presume the company’s technology is being used in some capacity.

What is confirmed is that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is using Palantir’s technology. The company has also been listed as one of several companies that would be part of the Golden Dome missile defense system being proposed by the Trump administration. Palantir is also becoming an essential company in the space economy.

That being said, PLTR stock is more than overdue for a pullback. However, rather than view that as a concern over the company’s valuation, retail investors should look at any downside move as a natural step in what likely will remain a bullish pattern.

Volatility and Liquidity Continue to Drive PLTR Stock

Institutional investment in Palantir has increased in the last three quarters, but overall institutional ownership is still around 45%. It’s fair to say that retail investors continue to lead this charge higher. In fact, the uncertainty and volatility that define the broader market help make the case for PLTR stock.

Investors are looking for stocks with liquidity, and Palantir fits that description. For example, on Friday, July 13, the volume on PLTR stock was over 93 million shares, above its average of 80.86 million shares.

Of course, volatility works both ways. Palantir shareholders only need to look back to February, when the stock dropped by more than 40%. At that time, the market’s concern was the potential for less AI infrastructure spending. But now, as was the case then, this shouldn’t be an issue for Palantir.

Palantir Is Architecture Agnostic

Palantir is frequently referred to as a data analytics company. That may be too simplistic, but it does point to a tension that some investors feel. A core strength of Palantir is its ability to integrate data from any source.

This plays well with centralized databases such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. These platforms rely on as much data as possible to train their models.

For some investors, that could put Palantir at odds with a world that’s increasingly adopting blockchain technology. But Palantir is architecture agnostic. This means its platforms (Foundry, Gotham, AIP, etc.) can also integrate data from decentralized systems such as public blockchains and distributed ledgers.

And blockchain is not a rejection of AI. Instead, it offers an antidote of sorts to the excesses of centralized databases that have gaps in security and privacy. Palantir excels in both security and privacy.

Analyst Ratings Show a Higher Ceiling and a Higher Floor

There’s no way to get around the lofty valuation on PLTR stock. Even for those who consider Palantir to be a unicorn among technology stocks, the share price is expensive. Going beyond the company’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio and other conventional metrics, investors have to ask themselves how much they’re willing to pay for a $1 of Palantir’s earnings.

Currently, estimates are for earnings to increase by about 10% in the next 12 months. Even if the company were to keep that going for the next 10 years, critics would say it doesn’t justify its valuation.

Analysts are divided on the issue. For example, Loop Capital recently raised its price target on PLTR stock to $155 from $130. However, the consensus price target among sell-side analysts is a price target of $101.32, which is a 26% decline in the stock.

However, once again, this shows that the floor for PLTR stock is moving higher. This is essential to Palantir's long-term buy-and-hold case.