New York, Feb 14, 2026, 10:03 EST — Market closed
- Palantir finished Friday up 1.77%. Shares eked out a minor after-hours bump, a modest recovery following Thursday’s steep decline.
- Freedom Capital Markets lifted its rating to Buy, setting a $170 target. On the flip side, Michael Burry called the shares overvalued.
- U.S. markets are back open Tuesday following the Presidents Day break. Traders have their eyes on Fed minutes and fresh inflation numbers due later this week.
Palantir Technologies Inc (Nasdaq: PLTR) shares finished Friday up 1.77% at $131.41, ticking a bit higher to $131.75 in after-hours moves. The stock recouped some losses from Thursday as the market wound down ahead of the U.S. holiday break. Trading volume hit roughly 49.4 million shares in regular hours and saw another 3.7 million change hands post-close, according to market data.
Palantir sits squarely in the middle of what traders have dubbed an “AI scare trade”—that is, the scramble to dump stocks perceived as vulnerable to fresh waves of automation. Since October, the S&P 500 Software & Services index has lost roughly $2 trillion in value, with names like Atlassian and Intuit taking especially hard hits this year. “With fear driving market sentiment, investors remain in ‘sell first think later’ mode,” said Barclays equity strategist Emmanuel Cau. Reuters
A milder inflation reading on Friday offered relief to growth stocks that typically react to rates. U.S. consumer prices edged up 0.2% in January, with the annual pace cooling to 2.4%. Still, economists argued the Fed isn’t in a rush to cut. “Price pressures remain a little too hot for comfort,” Edward Jones senior economist James McCann said. Reuters
On Friday, Freedom Capital Markets bumped Palantir up to Buy from Sell, holding steady with its $170 price target. The firm pointed to Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, which it says is turning pilot projects into bigger deals, per an Investing.com report. 2026 and 2027 revenue estimates were also revised higher.
Shares slid 4.8% Thursday after Michael Burry, founder of Scion Asset Management, posted a bearish take on Substack. Burry pegged what he sees as fair value for the stock at $46, warning, “I believe Palantir’s recent winning streak will not endure.” He clarified he isn’t short the stock directly, but does hold put options—contracts that go up if shares drop—according to Investopedia. Investopedia
No U.S. equity trading Monday because of Presidents Day, so Palantir investors have to wait until Tuesday for the next session. That pause? It can lead to bigger swings when the market reopens.
Valuation still hangs over the story. Earlier this month, after Palantir projected both first-quarter and full-year 2026 revenue above Wall Street expectations, eToro’s Zavier Wong flagged that “valuation question marks won’t disappear,” adding that shares are still “priced for perfection.” U.S. government revenue at the Denver-based firm surged 66% in the fourth quarter, hitting $570 million. Reuters
Traders will probably keep watching both the AI scare angle and Palantir’s knack for snagging sizable government and commercial contracts. Swings in the stock can come out of nowhere—headlines drive the action.
Traders are already looking ahead to key events later this week. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s Jan. 27-28 meeting drop at 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 18. Then, on Feb. 20, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index—the Fed’s go-to inflation measure—hits the tape.
