Investing.com -- Palantir Technologies received a new Buy rating from Loop Capital and continued bullish support from Wedbush on Thursday, despite recent market concerns over potential U.S. defense budget cuts.
Loop Capital initiated coverage on Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) with a $141 price target, highlighting the company’s role in the AI-driven enterprise revolution.
“Palantir is leveraged to the AI (and GenAI) themes sweeping through the tech sector, which are enormous market opportunities,” the firm wrote.
Analysts emphasized Palantir’s differentiated AI data platform, which uses an Ontology framework to make AI-driven decision-making more intuitive for enterprises and government agencies. Despite concerns about valuation—trading at nearly 44x estimated 2027 revenue—Loop Capital compared Palantir’s long-term potential to Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) in digital marketing and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in cloud computing.
“If you buy into the big picture as we do… then it’s hard to put a price on the opportunity,” the firm stated, recommending investors start positions and add on pullbacks.
Wedbush, which maintains its Outperform rating and a $120 price target, dismissed concerns over defense budget reductions, arguing that Palantir stands to gain rather than lose from Pentagon spending shifts.
“The bears… now have found their latest ‘silver bullet’ negative thesis around PLTR being exposed to these budget cuts,” Wedbush wrote.
“This is exactly the opposite of how we believe these DOD cuts will play out.” Analysts expect Palantir to secure more IT budget dollars, given its ability to streamline and optimize military AI spending.
Wedbush also pointed to Project Stargate, a government AI initiative, as a key growth catalyst for Palantir. “Karp&Co. are playing chess in the AI Arms Race while others play checkers,” the firm noted, adding that Palantir could become the next Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) or Salesforce as AI adoption accelerates.
Despite near-term volatility, both firms see Palantir as a long-term AI leader with significant upside potential.
