Summary: William Blair upgraded Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) from Market Perform to Outperform on Monday, saying its tracking data shows robust activity in both government and commercial markets. The research house highlighted continued adoption under the new administration, expanding enterprise workflows, and notable partnership wins, while flagging that market valuation remains high relative to fundamentals.
Market context and share performance
Palantir’s shares are trading at $146.59 and have experienced volatility in recent sessions, falling 12.47% over the past week. The stock also suffered an earlier, larger drawdown of roughly 30%, but retains a substantial gain of 77.71% over the previous 12 months, according to InvestingPro data.
William Blair’s rationale for the upgrade
William Blair cited its government tracker and commercial tracker as primary evidence of continued momentum, noting in its research that the new administration "continues to go all-in with Palantir" while enterprise customers are adding workflows on the company’s platforms. The firm pointed to what it described as an "astounding Rule-of-114 September quarter" and, based on tracker metrics and industry conversations, projected "a very strong December quarter." The upgrade from Market Perform to Outperform was issued ahead of Palantir’s upcoming earnings announcement.
The firm acknowledged that Palantir’s valuation looks "frothy," yet judged it comparatively more reasonable versus recent venture-round valuations seen across the AI ecosystem. InvestingPro metrics included in the analysis show 47.23% revenue growth and an 80.81% gross profit margin for the company, while also flagging a P/E ratio of 337.2 that places Palantir among the most overvalued stocks by that measure.
Target and analyst landscape
William Blair signaled confidence in the company’s growth trajectory, forecasting that Palantir shares could return to "greater than $200 over the next 12 months," reflecting expectations for continued "hyper-growth and margin expansion." That objective sits near the upper bound of the analyst price target range visible in InvestingPro, which spans from $50 to $255.
The firm’s move follows an earlier change last March when William Blair upgraded Palantir to Market Perform at $84 per share after what it described as a "DOGE-inspired selloff," and after expressing concerns at that time about the prior administration’s inclination to diversify away from sole-sourcing Palantir.
Partner activity and commercial wins
Recent partnership and contract activity cited alongside the downgrade-to-upgrade trajectory underscore Palantir’s commercial momentum. Innodata Inc. has been selected to supply training data and data engineering services for Palantir, specifically for AI-enabled analysis of rodeo event footage; the work will include specialized annotation and engineering to support computer vision models that automate performance metrics.
Separately, Palantir and HD Hyundai have expanded their strategic partnership in Korea. That expansion is described as Palantir’s largest collaboration in the region and will extend deployment of Palantir’s Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform across multiple HD Hyundai business units.
Other analyst positions and financial outlooks
Market voices vary: Phillip Securities has initiated coverage on Palantir with a Buy rating and a $208 price target, projecting 47% year-over-year revenue growth to $4.2 billion by fiscal year 2025 and forecasting that rising AI adoption in enterprises will drive commercial revenue to grow faster than government revenue. In contrast, RBC Capital reiterated an Underperform rating with a $50 price target, citing declines in qualified contract value and net new annual contract value while acknowledging that geopolitical instability could provide some tailwinds for government demand.
Conclusion
William Blair’s upgrade reflects a view that Palantir’s operational momentum across government and commercial segments, reinforced by customer deployments and partner engagements, supports further upside despite high headline valuation metrics. The outlook remains mixed across the analyst community, with differing assessments around contract metrics and valuation driving a wide spread of price targets.
Key data referenced in this report come from InvestingPro metrics cited in analyst commentary.