5 Investors Betting Big on Palantir (PLTR) Stock

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) has been one of today’s winners. After reporting impressive Q1 earnings, it has been rising steadily all day, strengthening the bull case for PLTR stock. The company beat analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings-per-share (EPS), demonstrating encouraging growth after a highly volatile trading year. CEO Alex Karp has highlighted the unprecedented demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This comes at an excellent time, as Palantir is gearing up to launch its new AI platform, a technology with wide-ranging public and private sector applications.

However, some Wall Street institutions have expressed concerns following the big data company’s earnings report. Morgan Stanley recently sounded the alarm on PLTR stock, highlighting multiple factors that some might find concerning. As InvestorPlace assistant news writer Eddie Pan reports, the investment bank has shown a light on Palantir’s questionable “strategic investments.” In his words:

“Morgan Stanley added that without the contribution from ‘Strategic Investments,’ Palantir would have reported its smallest revenue beat since its initial public offering. In addition, Palantir’s dollar-based net retention rate (NRR) is also falling. During Q1, the metric was 111%, compared to 115% during Q4 and 124% during Q1 of 2022. On top of that, the net new commercial customer adds during Q1 came to just 20, down by 46% YOY.”

Does this mean that institutional investment in PLTR stock is going to sour as the company pulls into Q2? Hedge fund sentiment remains mixed following a highly volatile quarter. However, it’s clear that the stock comes with both pros and cons.

According to data from Whale Wisdom, the number of funds holding PLTR stock has slightly decreased slightly since Q4 2022, falling 0.51%. Nonetheless, the percentage of ownership has risen by more than 4.5%, and the number of new positions has risen by more than 30%. That said, the number of increased positions has fallen 19%, while closed positions have spiked by 42%. The stock’s put/call ratio is also falling, currently sitting at 0.79, a more than 14% decrease.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top investors maintaining large positions in PLTR stock:

• Peter Thiel: 163,465,194 shares. The billionaire investor who co-founded Palantir recently decreased his position in PLTR by one share.
• Vanguard Group: 161,635,065 shares. The mutual fund leader added 4,149,537 Palantir shares in Q4.
• BlackRock (NYSE:BLK): 96,694,497 shares. This Wall Street institution recently increased its position in Palantir by 4,975,975 shares.
• Renaissance Technologies: 43,000,160 shares. This prominent hedge fund added 9,870,113 shares of PLTR stock in Q4.
• State Street (NYSE:STT): 34,456,100 shares. The financial services company recently decreased its Palantir position by 420,591 shares.

On the date of publication, Samuel O’Brient did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.