ARK Invest
- Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired 6.8 million shares of Palantir in the last week.
- The shares are worth roughly $172 million as of Thursday’s closing price.
- Wood bought the dip in Palantir after a surprise earnings loss and a lockup expiration caused share prices to fall.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest ETFs have acquired 6,834,900 shares of Palantir in the past week amid falling share prices at the company.
Palantir faced a six-day losing streak throughout the week after it posted a surprise earnings loss and a lockup expiration freed 80% of the big data firm’s stock to trade publicly.
Two of Cathie Wood’s top exchange-traded funds took advantage of the dip.
The ARK Innovation ETF, ticker ARKK, bought 5,274,700 shares of the big data firm on Thursday and the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, ticker ARKW, purchased 1,560,200 shares on Monday.
At Thursday’s closing price, the two Ark Invest ETFs’ acquisitions amount to roughly $172 million worth of Palantir stock.
All ARK ETFs reveal their trades in emails to clients daily.
While many analysts and investors worry about Palantir's lofty valuation-the company trades at 43 times trailing-twelve-month sales-Cathie Wood and her funds believe in the long-term growth prospects of the firm.
Wood appeared on CNBC to talk about her holdings on Wednesday and said she was pleased with Palantir CEO Alex Karp's focus on spending for growth recently, calling it a "refreshing attitude."
Still, some analysts and investors argue Palantir's reliance on government revenue could be a problem. Wood said she isn't worried that 61% of the company's revenue comes from government sources.
"Some of the most important innovations in our lifetime have started in the government, especially in the defense sector and in the intelligence sector," the CEO added.
Wood isn't Palantir's only supporter. Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded Palantir to a "buy" rating this week and added a $34 price target after earnings. The analysts cited Palantir's path to "sustainable growth", predictable and growing government revenues, and margin expansion as their reasoning for the move.
Still, overall analysts are mostly bearish on Palantir. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and William Blair all issued "sell" ratings for the Denver-based firm after earnings.
The average price target for Palantir is also just $16.73, indicating a potential 33% fall from Thursday's closing price. That hasn't stopped Reddit traders from taking an interest in the name, however.
The comment volume for Palantir on the now infamous WallStreetBets Reddit forum stood at 2,535 versus just 1,465 for GameStop according to data from SwaggyStocks.
Palantir's status on the subreddit could mean significant buying pressure from retail traders in the name. Shares of Palantir traded up 11.24% on Friday as of 10:00 a.m. ET, more than erasing the company's Thursday losses.