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Palantir analyst: “We acknowledge that we were wrong”

Morgan Stanley analysts, who have been some of Wall Street’s most outspoken skeptics on the run-up in the share price of Palantir, modified some of their views in the aftermath of the company’s knockout Q4 results.

Sanjit Singh, the lead analyst on the shares, upgraded his view from “underweight” to “equal weight” — effectively a move from “sell” to “hold” — and raised his price target on the shares from $60 to $95, writing:

Our concerns on valuation at ~50x CY26 sales and on the potential for slower growth in 2025 given tougher YoY compares suggested that the risk/reward was unattractive leading to our UW rating. However, one of the key principles of growth investing in software is before looking to valuation, to first assess whether the business is getting better or worse and, if getting better, to ask how durable that improvement is going forward.”

The business, he concluded, is clearly getting better, succinctly evinced by the 36% year-on-year revenue growth the company produced in Q4.

Despite an Ultra Premium Valuation, We See Lack of Downside Catalysts Over The Next 3-4 Quarters. Given the strength of the outlook, we acknowledge that we were wrong about our core fundamental catalyst of slowing growth below the 30% level due to the tougher compares in 2025. This leaves us with valuation as the primary remaining concern.”

Of course, valuation remains a worry for many of the analysts covering the shares. But the sheer force of the company’s recent results seems to be forcing some analysts to bite the bullet and change their views.

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Momentum returns to optics stocks as the release valve for AI optimism

Potentially imminent end to the war? Buy optics stocks.

Maybe not? Buy optics stocks anyway.

Effectively all the juice left in the AI trade is coming from optics (and memory) stocks. And the latter group is taking a bit of a breather today while the former continues to surge.

Shares of Ciena Corp., Lumentum, and Coherent are building on recent big gains and among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 near midday, while Applied Optoelectronics is also surging on Thursday.

These companies all provide solutions that help information move around in data centers, and thus are key beneficiaries of the aggressive capex plans of hyperscalers. Nvidia has invested $2 billion apiece in Coherent and Lumentum in deals that also include purchase commitments.

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Space stocks rip during a topsy-turvy day for the equity market

Satellite-services-from-space stocks surged Thursday after reports that Amazon is in talks to buy Globalstar, which provides voice and connectivity services from its satellite network. It also can’t hurt that the general mood around space is ebullient, following the successful launch of Artemis II on Thursday.

Planet Labs and ViaSat also soared on the news.

The gains for EchoStar — seen as a backdoor play at pre-IPO SpaceX exposure — and Rocket Lab were more muted, perhaps because a deep-pocketed competitor like Jeff Bezos getting serious about space services could complicate the plans of the two largest commercial space launch companies.

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the dominant provider of such services, and the early rumors on the company’s planned IPO — expected to be the largest ever — suggest the market is very excited about the prospects for the industry.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

The gains for EchoStar — seen as a backdoor play at pre-IPO SpaceX exposure — and Rocket Lab were more muted, perhaps because a deep-pocketed competitor like Jeff Bezos getting serious about space services could complicate the plans of the two largest commercial space launch companies.

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the dominant provider of such services, and the early rumors on the company’s planned IPO — expected to be the largest ever — suggest the market is very excited about the prospects for the industry.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

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Tesla delivered 358,023 vehicles in Q1, short of expectations

Ahead of its first-quarter earnings later this month, Tesla on Thursday announced that it delivered 358,023 vehicles in the quarter.

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected 380,500 vehicle deliveries in the first quarter this year, while Tesla last month released its own company-compiled Wall Street consensus estimate — something it began doing in the fourth quarter of 2025 — of 365,645 vehicles.

The Texas-based company produced some 408,000 vehicles, meaning that it made 50,400 more vehicles than it sold during the quarter. That’s the largest gap in Tesla’s history, surpassing the previous record set in Q1 2024.

Shares extended losses in premarket trading on Thursday, falling more than 4%.

The deliveries figure is still up from the same quarter last year, when Tesla delivered fewer than 337,000 vehicles amid intensifying competition in China and flailing public perception over CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration.

As of 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, event contract odds held a slightly less optimistic view than the broader analyst community, but a sunnier view than the figure Tesla put forward. 52% of traders predicted Tesla’s Q1 deliveries would come in at more than 360,000, 40% thought the figure would be higher than 370,000, and 15% estimated it would be higher than 380,000.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.