Much like the rest of the market, Palantir Technologies PLTR had a volatile first half of 2026. However, since the start of the second half of this year, the stock of the software company has surged about 58% to date, bringing its year-to-date gains to around 12%.
Following Goldman Sachs’ GS upgrade of Palantir, the stock gained further momentum. PLTR rose 2.4% on Thursday and was up about 0.7% during pre-market hours on Friday.
Goldman Sachs analysts raised their recommendation on Palantir to Buy from Neutral, assigning the stock a $230 price target for the next 12 months, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. The upgraded price target represents a surge of about 15.71% from Thursday’s close.
Inside Goldman Sachs’s Bullish Call on Palantir
Goldman analysts said that the latest industry conversations suggest that Palantir could be poised to deliver another stretch of outperformance through 2027. They also noted that the company’s total addressable market (TAM) could expand significantly, driven by the shift toward sovereign AI, bespoke applications and the company’s advancement of its verticalization strategy.
As quoted on the abovementioned Yahoo Finance article, Goldman also highlighted Palantir’s highly effective feedback loop between its field and product teams. Goldman believes Palantir’s practice of deploying engineers to customer sites to build customized applications could give it an edge in developing AI agents to scale the process.
While Microsoft MSFT, Salesforce CRM and Snowflake SNOW are also expanding their field teams, Palantir may have a head start in integrating AI agents into this workflow, according to the investment banking company.
Palantir’s Bull Case Gets Another Boost From Dan Ives
Adding to Palantir’s bullish momentum, Dan Ives included the stock in his top five tech picks for 2027 in a post on X on Tuesday. According to Ives, the market is yet to fully appreciate the magnitude of the projected $4 trillion AI spending boom.
As quoted by BeInCrypto and cited by Yahoo Finance, PLTR received a price target of $250, marking a rise of 25.77% from Thursday’s close.
Into PLTR’s Stock Outlook
Palantir Technologies currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.77 on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations made by 30 brokerage firms. The current ABR compares to an ABR of 1.70 a month ago based on 30 recommendations.
Of the 30 recommendations deriving the current ABR, 20 are Strong Buy, representing 66.67% of all recommendations. While the share of Strong Buy recommendations has declined from 70% a month ago, the majority of analysts remain bullish.
Based on short-term price targets offered by 26 analysts, the average price target for Palantir Technologies comes to $201.92, ranging from a low of $80.00 to a high of $255.00. The average price target represents an increase of 1.55% from the last closing price of $198.78 (as of market close on Oct. 8).
With the stock already trading near the average price target of $201.92, the high-end target of $255, implying an upside of 28.28% from Thursday’s close, may not be out of reach. PLTR has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a Growth Score of A.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Play Palantir’s Growth Story With These ETFs
Here, we have highlighted ETFs with exposure to Palantir.
Corgi Data & Surveillance ETF EYES has an exposure of 16.55%.
First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF MISL has an exposure of 13.36%.
Global X Defense Tech ETF SHLD has an exposure of 12.74%.
U.S. Defense ETF DUTY has an exposure of 9.72%.
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Global X Defense Tech ETF (SHLD): ETF Research Reports
Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR): Free Stock Analysis Report
First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF (MISL): ETF Research Reports
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The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Salesforce, Inc. (CRM): Free Stock Analysis Report
Snowflake Inc. (SNOW): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).