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Luke Kawa

Potential US defense budget cuts will help Palantir, not hurt it: Wedbush

Shares of Palantir are getting crushed after reports the Trump administration plans to reduce defense spending by 8% per annum and a filing showing CEO Alex Karp is able to unload about 10 million shares through September 12.

However, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks the markets have it dead wrong when it comes to how much the government will be forking over to the politically well-connected defense and data analytics software company going forward.

“The bears which have hated Palantir from $12 to $120 in the last 18 months now have found their latest ‘silver bullet’ negative thesis around PLTR being exposed to these budget cuts,” he wrote. “This is exactly the opposite of how we believe these DOD cuts will play out as in our view Palantir’s unique software approach will enable the company to gain MORE IT budget dollars at the Pentagon... not less despite these initial knee jerk reactions from the Street.”

The selling pressure also ignores that Palantir is poised to be a beneficiary from a “tidal wave” of government spending tied to AI, he added.

Ives has an outperform rating and $120 price target for the stock.

Separately, JPMorgan analysts led by Bram Kaplan observed that retail traders continued flooding into Palantir, with net buys of $286 million over the past week (through Wednesday).

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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