Lazard Asset Management LLC Purchases 269,697 Shares of Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR)

Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) by 133.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 472,497 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 269,697 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Palantir Technologies were worth $10,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Palantir Technologies by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 196,834,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,529,164,000 after buying an additional 3,029,317 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Palantir Technologies by 15.7% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 14,571,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,284,000 after buying an additional 1,980,495 shares during the last quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its position in Palantir Technologies by 19.2% in the first quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 9,829,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $226,180,000 after buying an additional 1,580,548 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Palantir Technologies by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,063,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,283,000 after buying an additional 403,905 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Palantir Technologies by 248,208.2% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,625,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,418,000 after buying an additional 3,623,840 shares during the last quarter. 45.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Palantir Technologies news, Director Alexander D. Moore sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.02, for a total value of $440,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,595,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,133,328.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Peter Thiel sold 5,000,000 shares of Palantir Technologies stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.78, for a total transaction of $103,900,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,733,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $326,944,727.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alexander D. Moore sold 20,000 shares of Palantir Technologies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.02, for a total value of $440,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,595,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,133,328.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,467,179 shares of company stock valued at $242,726,313. 12.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on PLTR shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on Palantir Technologies from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of Palantir Technologies in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Palantir Technologies from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. William Blair reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Palantir Technologies in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Palantir Technologies from $5.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.32.

Palantir Technologies Stock Performance

PLTR traded up $0.55 on Friday, hitting $27.18. The company had a trading volume of 27,432,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 43,057,688. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.95. Palantir Technologies Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.68 and a 12-month high of $29.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 226.52, a P/E/G ratio of 6.28 and a beta of 2.71.

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.04. Palantir Technologies had a return on equity of 8.28% and a net margin of 12.79%. The company had revenue of $634.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $614.88 million. Analysts forecast that Palantir Technologies Inc. will post 0.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Palantir Technologies Profile

Palantir Technologies Inc builds and deploys software platforms for the intelligence community to assist in counterterrorism investigations and operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company provides Palantir Gotham, a software platform which enables users to identify patterns hidden deep within datasets, ranging from signals intelligence sources to reports from confidential informants, as well as facilitates the handoff between analysts and operational users, helping operators plan and execute real-world responses to threats that have been identified within the platform.