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After reporting mixed earnings, shares of Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) are below their direct listing price. And with the company suggesting that next quarter's revenue may come in below analysts' estimates, the immediate question may be how low can the stock go? Until investors can figure that out, PLTR stock is not a buy.
However, in strictly technical terms, the sell-off is starting to look overdone. Plus, the lower the stock goes, the more it starts to look appealing from a fundamental perspective. And that means that PLTR stock looks like it will be a solid buy at some point. But with investor sentiment at all-time bearish levels, that day is not today.
The more interesting question for me is what more does Palantir have to do to please investors? Upon going public, a key concern of investors was the company's reliance on its government contracts. But in its most recent earnings report, Palantir showed a 54% year-over-year (YOY) increase in sales on the commercial side of its business. Overall revenue was up 31% YOY, which was slightly ahead of analysts' expectations.
Ironically, it's slower growth in the company's government-related revenue that is causing angst for investors post earnings. Palantir reported that vertical only saw a 16% YOY revenue increase. Plus the company is forecasting slower overall revenue growth for the second quarter.
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However, it's unclear whether investors are factoring in two recently announced contracts. First, the company announced a 10 million-pound ($12.5 million) contract with the U.K. Ministry of Defence. And the company also inked a 5-year, $90-million blanket purchase agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
It's fair to note that Palantir missed on earnings. And this does nothing to satisfy investors who are concerned that Palantir may find it difficult to generate meaningful earnings. The root of this concern is that the data analytics company faces too much competition to capture significantly higher market share than it already has.
Still, Palantir has a consensus price target of $14.31, an 85% gain from the stock's current price. It's also over 40% lower than the consensus price target from a year ago. That's not very comforting for investors who bought PLTR stock at its 2021 highs, but it presents an intriguing opportunity for risk-tolerant investors.
On the date of publication, Chris Markoch did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
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