Palantir gains as defense-linked AI names catch a bid amid Middle East tensions

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) is up 3.1% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The move appears tied to a risk-on shift into defense- and national-security-exposed software names as geopolitical tensions rose, with investors treating Palantir as a beneficiary of higher defense and intelligence activity. Recent high-dollar U.S. government contract visibility likely reinforced the bid.

Details:

Defense-related stocks broadly moved higher as markets focused on escalating conflict involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran, while many large-cap AI stocks lagged.

Palantir tends to trade like a “dual-use” name—AI software plus direct exposure to U.S. defense and intelligence spending—so it can attract flows when defense sentiment strengthens.

Investor focus has recently centered on Palantir’s large, multi-year U.S. government contract footprint, including widely discussed Army and Navy awards that support longer-dated revenue expectations.

Separately, a recently publicized Department of Homeland Security contract for AI and data analytics rollout added to the narrative of sustained federal demand for Palantir platforms.

Sources:

Barron’s, MarketWatch, TechRadar

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$PLTR Insider Trading Activity

$PLTR insiders have traded $PLTR stock on the open market 238 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 238 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $PLTR stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

ALEXANDER C. KARP (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 32 sales selling 897,914 shares for an estimated $131,999,688.
STEPHEN ANDREW COHEN (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 27 sales selling 674,859 shares for an estimated $100,464,559.
SHYAM SANKAR (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 27 sales selling 336,880 shares for an estimated $50,011,534.
ALEXANDER D. MOORE has made 0 purchases and 42 sales selling 120,000 shares for an estimated $20,695,861.
RYAN D. TAYLOR (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 37 sales selling 124,097 shares for an estimated $19,674,250.
DAVID A. GLAZER (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 36 sales selling 124,968 shares for an estimated $19,376,162.
LAUREN ELAINA FRIEDMAN STAT has made 0 purchases and 8 sales selling 34,600 shares for an estimated $5,909,424.
JEFFREY BUCKLEY (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 29 sales selling 7,853 shares for an estimated $1,152,499.

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard.

$PLTR Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 1,500 institutional investors add shares of $PLTR stock to their portfolio, and 1,380 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

UBS AM, A DISTINCT BUSINESS UNIT OF UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC removed 47,772,359 shares (-77.1%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $8,491,536,812
CARDANO RISK MANAGEMENT B.V. added 5,938,343 shares (+917.4%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $1,055,540,468
CAPITAL WORLD INVESTORS removed 5,002,307 shares (-98.7%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $889,160,069
CORIENT PRIVATE WEALTH LLC added 4,932,364 shares (+1449.7%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $876,727,701
BLACKROCK, INC. added 4,821,530 shares (+2.6%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $857,026,957
NORGES BANK added 4,708,806 shares (+19.4%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $836,990,266
DAIWA SECURITIES GROUP INC. added 3,854,452 shares (+637.5%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $685,128,843

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard.

$PLTR Government Contracts

We have seen $911,973,234 of award payments to $PLTR over the last year.

Here are some of the awards which we have have seen pay out the most over the last year:

To track government contracts to publicy traded companies, check out Quiver Quantitative's government contracts dashboard.

$PLTR Congressional Stock Trading

Members of Congress have traded $PLTR stock 10 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 7 have been purchases and 3 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $PLTR stock by members of Congress over the last 6 months:

REPRESENTATIVE JONATHAN L. JACKSON has traded it 2 times. They made 1 purchase worth up to $50,000 on 12/22 and 1 sale worth up to $50,000 on 01/16.
REPRESENTATIVE GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, JR. has traded it 4 times. They made 4 purchases worth up to $60,000 on 01/09, 11/18, 11/07, 10/09 and 0 sales.
REPRESENTATIVE LISA C. MCCLAIN has traded it 3 times. They made 1 purchase worth up to $15,000 on 10/30 and 2 sales worth up to $30,000 on 10/31, 10/30.
REPRESENTATIVE CLEO FIELDS purchased up to $50,000 on 10/10.

To track congressional stock trading, check out Quiver Quantitative's congressional trading dashboard.

$PLTR Analyst Ratings

Wall Street analysts have issued reports on $PLTR in the last several months. We have seen 4 firms issue buy ratings on the stock, and 1 firms issue sell ratings.

Here are some recent analyst ratings:

Mizuho issued a "Outperform" rating on 02/18/2026
Citigroup issued a "Buy" rating on 01/12/2026
Piper Sandler issued a "Overweight" rating on 11/04/2025
B of A Securities issued a "Buy" rating on 11/04/2025
RBC Capital issued a "Underperform" rating on 11/04/2025

To track analyst ratings and price targets for $PLTR, check out Quiver Quantitative's $PLTR forecast page.

$PLTR Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $PLTR recently. We have seen 15 analysts offer price targets for $PLTR in the last 6 months, with a median target of $200.0.

Here are some recent targets:

John McPeake from Rosenblatt set a target price of $150.0 on 02/27/2026
Karl Keirstead from UBS set a target price of $180.0 on 02/26/2026
Gregg Moskowitz from Mizuho set a target price of $195.0 on 02/18/2026
Gil Luria from DA Davidson set a target price of $180.0 on 02/03/2026
Tyler Radke from Citigroup set a target price of $260.0 on 02/03/2026
Paul Chew from Phillip Securities set a target price of $208.0 on 01/22/2026
Arvind Ramnani from Truist Securities set a target price of $223.0 on 01/06/2026

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.