Palantir stock sinks after military budget cut report and a new Alex Karp stock trading plan
Shares of Palantir Technologies plunged ~10% in the last two hours of trading yesterday, and are lower again this morning after news of an updated stock trading plan and a report from The Washington Post detailing the Trump administration’s plan for large budget cuts across military spending.
The report outlined orders for the US military’s defense budget to be cut by 8% annually for the next five years. (The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 currently stands at ~$850 billion.) Palantir makes AI software and provides technology services to defense agencies, and is a major contractor for the US military. Indeed, per the company’s most recent quarterly report, over half of the company’s revenues in its third quarter came from global government contracts.
The sell-off has taken some of the froth out of a stock that’s been on a remarkable run. Palantir shares more than quadrupled in value in 2024, and even with this latest dip are still up 48% year-to-date after bumper earnings in early February.
The military budget report follows company CEO Alex Karp, known for his elusive pronouncements, disclosing a new trading plan in a 10b5-1 regulatory filing on Tuesday night that would allow him to sell almost 10 million shares in the company when preset conditions are met. Last year, Karp sold a “total of 40.7 million Palantir shares for $1.95 billion in 2024, [at] an average price of $47.99 each,” according to calculations from Barron’s.
The report outlined orders for the US military’s defense budget to be cut by 8% annually for the next five years. (The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 currently stands at ~$850 billion.) Palantir makes AI software and provides technology services to defense agencies, and is a major contractor for the US military. Indeed, per the company’s most recent quarterly report, over half of the company’s revenues in its third quarter came from global government contracts.
The sell-off has taken some of the froth out of a stock that’s been on a remarkable run. Palantir shares more than quadrupled in value in 2024, and even with this latest dip are still up 48% year-to-date after bumper earnings in early February.
The military budget report follows company CEO Alex Karp, known for his elusive pronouncements, disclosing a new trading plan in a 10b5-1 regulatory filing on Tuesday night that would allow him to sell almost 10 million shares in the company when preset conditions are met. Last year, Karp sold a “total of 40.7 million Palantir shares for $1.95 billion in 2024, [at] an average price of $47.99 each,” according to calculations from Barron’s.
