BigBear.ai (BBAI) Stock Today: Cantor Hikes Target to $7 as Options Volume Surges

As of Friday, November 14, 2025, BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BBAI) is cooling slightly after a blistering post‑earnings rally, but Wall Street attention is still locked on the defense‑focused AI name.

The day’s BigBear.ai story is being shaped by three fresh developments:

Cantor Fitzgerald has raised its 12‑month price target to $7 and reiterated an Overweight rating. ^[1]
BBAI is one of Nasdaq’s most active pre‑market names, trading heavy volume after a volatile week. ^[2]
Options activity remains intense, with hundreds of thousands of contracts trading around today’s weekly expiration and open interest well above its 30‑day average. ^[3]

Below is a full rundown of where the stock stands today and how the latest news fits into the bigger BigBear.ai story.

Where BigBear.ai Stock Stands on November 14, 2025

BigBear.ai shares are trading around $6.28 this afternoon, down only a few cents on the day after a wild week that included double‑digit intraday swings. Today’s intraday range has stretched roughly between $5.83 and $6.59, on volume north of 37 million shares.

Despite today’s modest pullback, BBAI remains sharply higher in 2025, with year‑to‑date total returns of about 40%+ according to Yahoo Finance, easily outpacing many broader market benchmarks. ^[4]

Pre‑market action set the tone. In Nasdaq’s “Pre‑Market Most Active” list for Nov. 14, BBAI ranked among the busiest tickers, with the stock changing hands at around $5.93, down $0.41 in early trade and already logging more than 2.6 million pre‑market shares. ^[5]

Put simply: this is still a high‑beta, high‑attention AI name, and today’s tape action reflects a market catching its breath after a big run.

Today’s Headline: Cantor Fitzgerald Lifts BBAI Target to $7

One of the key catalysts in today’s news flow is renewed attention on Cantor Fitzgerald’s bullish stance:

The firm reiterated its Overweight rating on BigBear.ai.
It raised its 12‑month price target from $6 to $7, implying upside from current levels. ^[6]

In a note highlighted by InsiderMonkey and republished via Yahoo Finance and Finviz, Cantor argues that:

BigBear.ai delivered a “solid” Q3 relative to expectations, even though revenue fell year‑on‑year.
The newly announced Ask Sage acquisition significantly strengthens the company’s generative AI capabilities for defense and other highly regulated sectors. ^[7]

The firm points to long‑term AI tailwinds and expanding government and enterprise AI investment as the core of its bull case, while acknowledging that BBAI remains a higher‑risk, early‑stage play.

Cantor’s $7 target also aligns neatly with where BBAI has been trading this week: Nasdaq’s pre‑market data notes that the stock’s last sale represented roughly 85% of that $7 target earlier this morning. ^[8]

Q3 2025: Revenue Down, Earnings Beat and a Big AI Bet

Much of today’s coverage is still digesting BigBear.ai’s Q3 2025 results, released on November 10 alongside the Ask Sage deal. ^[9]

Headline numbers

From the company’s own press release and earnings call:

Revenue: $33.1 million, down ~20% from $41.5 million a year ago, mainly due to lower volume on certain U.S. Army programs. ^[10]
GAAP net income:$2.5 million, versus a $15.1 million loss in Q3 2024 – helped by non‑cash gains tied to derivative liabilities on its convertible notes and warrants. ^[11]
Adjusted EPS: roughly –$0.03, beating forecasts for a larger loss of –$0.05, a 40% positive surprise according to Investing.com’s transcript summary. ^[12]
Gross margin:22.4%, down from 25.9% a year earlier. ^[13]
Adjusted EBITDA:–$9.4 million, versus +$0.9 million in Q3 2024, reflecting lower margins and higher SG&A expenses. ^[14]

On the balance sheet side:

BigBear.ai ended the quarter with a record $456.6 million in cash and roughly $619.8 million in current assets, after a large equity raise earlier this year. ^[15]
Including investments, total cash and investments are around $700+ million, according to the earnings call recap. ^[16]
Backlog stands at $376 million, giving the company a visible pipeline of contracted work across defense, border security, travel and trade. ^[17]

Guidance remains intact. Management reaffirmed full‑year 2025 revenue guidance of $125–$140 million, and noted that the Ask Sage deal is not expected to materially affect 2025 results because it should close late Q4 2025 or early Q1 2026. ^[18]

Ask Sage: A $250 Million Bet on Secure Generative AI

The biggest strategic move in BigBear.ai’s story – and a central reason analysts are revisiting their models this week – is the planned acquisition of Ask Sage, Inc. ^[19]

According to the company:

BigBear.ai will pay $250 million for Ask Sage, subject to customary adjustments. ^[20]
Ask Sage is a model‑agnostic generative AI platform built specifically for defense, national security and other highly regulated sectors.
The platform already supports more than 100,000 users on 16,000 government teams across dozens of agencies, plus hundreds of commercial customers. ^[21]
Ask Sage is expected to deliver about $25 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2025, roughly six times its 2024 ARR. ^[22]

On the earnings call, CEO Kevin McAleenan described Ask Sage as a foundational platform that lets government and regulated‑industry customers safely deploy state‑of‑the‑art AI models (including “agentic” AI) across classified and sensitive environments – effectively turning BigBear into a one‑stop secure AI platform layered on top of its mission‑specific software and services. ^[23]

Analysts are split on how quickly that bet pays off:

H.C. Wainwright kept a Buy rating and set a more aggressive $8 price target, arguing that the Ask Sage deal could accelerate growth in 2026 and beyond. ^[24]
The TipRanks consensus before the deal and Q3 print was only a Moderate Buy with an average target near $5.83, implying limited upside from pre‑rally levels. ^[25]

Options & Short Interest: Speculation Peaks Around Nov. 14 Expiration

If you want to see where the speculative money is going, look at the options tape – and today’s BBAI action is loud.

Massive options volume into today’s expiry

A fresh report from Futu’s options desk this morning (published Nov. 14 at 05:30 ET) highlighted BigBear.ai’s hyper‑active options trading on November 13: ^[26]

201,270 options contracts traded in a single day.
Calls made up about 64% of that activity; puts about 36%.
Open interest sits around 1.24 million contracts, more than 110% above the 30‑day average.
A $6.00 strike call expiring today (Nov. 14, 2025) traded 3,000 contracts and was the largest “unusual” trade of the day, with roughly $81,000 in turnover.

Options analytics site ChartExchange shows today’s expiration with heavy open interest clustered around $6.00–$6.50, roughly where the stock has been oscillating, and notes a “max pain” level in that same zone – suggesting many positions stand to lose value if the stock is pinned there into the close. ^[27]

Short squeeze potential

Earlier this week, Schaeffer’s Research flagged BBAI as a classic short‑squeeze candidate: ^[28]

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the stock was up about 13.8% to $6.90 in midday trading.
Short interest sits at roughly 79 million shares, equating to about 18% of the free float – a very elevated level.
Call buying has dominated the options pits, with more than 204,000 calls vs. 59,000 puts trading on that day alone; weekly 11/14 calls at $7.50 and $8.00 were especially popular.

Layer that on top of today’s Futu data, and the picture is clear: BigBear.ai has become a playground for aggressive traders betting on both upside breakouts and rapid reversals.

Is BigBear.ai Really the “Next Palantir”? Debate Is Heating Up

As BBAI has ripped higher over the past week, a new round of comparisons to Palantir (PLTR) has popped up in financial media. A detailed 24/7 Wall St. piece, published yesterday and still prominently circulating today, argues that the analogy is overstated. ^[29]

Key points from that analysis and others:

BigBear.ai and Palantir both build data‑driven, AI‑enhanced decision platforms for defense, intelligence and enterprise customers, and BigBear’s ConductorOS platform is often likened to Palantir’s Gotham/Foundry suite. ^[30]
But Palantir generated around $1.18 billion in Q3 revenue, versus BigBear’s $33.1 million, and Palantir is growing far faster on a much larger base. ^[31]
BigBear’s business is still heavily concentrated: four major customers account for more than half of revenue, leaving the company vulnerable to contract timing and budget changes – as evidenced by this quarter’s drop in Army program volume. ^[32]
BBAI’s share count has surged as the company raised capital, resulting in substantial dilution to early shareholders even as the balance sheet improved. ^[33]

24/7 Wall St.’s conclusion: BBAI is not yet in Palantir’s league, and remains a speculative, high‑volatility AI defense bet, best suited to investors who can stomach big swings rather than those seeking a stable compounder. ^[34]

How Today’s News Fits the Bigger Picture

Putting everything together, the November 14, 2025 BigBear.ai story looks like this:

Fundamentals:
- Revenue is shrinking for now, but the company is beating expectations on earnings per share and sitting on a very large cash and investment pile. ^[35]
- Backlog and guidance suggest a multi‑year pipeline of government and infrastructure‑linked AI work.
Strategy:
- The Ask Sage acquisition is a bold, expensive bet to own the secure generative‑AI layer for defense and other regulated markets – potentially a powerful differentiator if integration and execution go well. ^[36]
Wall Street sentiment:
- Cantor’s $7 target and H.C. Wainwright’s $8 target show that some analysts see meaningful upside from here, but TipRanks’ broader pre‑earnings consensus was more cautious. ^[37]
Trading dynamics:
- Huge short interest, heavy call buying, and elevated options open interest around today’s weekly expiration make BBAI’s short‑term price path especially unpredictable. ^[38]
Risk profile:
- Customer concentration, declining margins, and ongoing adjusted losses mean BigBear still has a lot to prove, even with a stronger balance sheet. ^[39]

What to Watch After November 14

For readers tracking BBAI beyond today’s close, here are the key signposts:

Ask Sage closing timeline – whether the deal does in fact close by late Q4 2025 or early Q1 2026, and what updated synergy targets management provides. ^[40]
New contract wins and recompetes – especially in U.S. defense, border security and airport biometrics, where BigBear is already active. ^[41]
Margins and cash burn – whether the company can move Adjusted EBITDA back toward breakeven while investing in growth and integrating Ask Sage. ^[42]
Short interest and options activity – signs of a structural squeeze or, conversely, fading speculative interest in the name. ^[43]

For now, BigBear.ai remains one of the most closely watched “small‑cap AI defense” stories on the market, and today’s November 14 action shows that the mix of real contracts, big cash, and speculative flows is still very much alive.

This article is for information and news purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.

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