Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) stock has fallen more than 10% during the past five trading days, although that hasn’t stopped Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest from loading up the boat. Her last purchase of PLTR stock occurred on Dec. 6 when the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKK), the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKW) and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKF) picked up a combined 1.57 million shares.
Ark Invest now owns a total of 9.89 million shares of PLTR stock compared to 8.35 million shares as of Dec. 1. The big data analytics company is Ark Invest’s 23rd largest position with a weight of 1.19% among all of its exchange-traded funds.
PLTR Stock: Cathie Wood Buys the Dip
Despite the recent purchases, PLTR stock still carries a relatively small weight among Wood’s holdings. Her largest holding is Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) with an 8.54% allocation followed by UiPath (NYSE:PATH) with a 6.84% allocation.
During the third quarter, Wood increased her stake in Palantir by 38%, picking up 2.58 million shares. Shares of the company are up by over 170% so far this year, outperforming the S&P 500 by a wide margin.
However, Wall Street analysts aren’t so bullish on the company’s prospects. PLTR stock has an average price target of $15.43 among 14 analysts with coverage of the stock. That implies downside of about 12% from current prices.
One is these analysts is William Blair’s Louie DiPalma, who believes that the company’s $458 million contract with the U.S. Army, which is set to expire soon, will be renewed with an eventual lower price tag than the $116 million run rate the company is currently receiving. The analyst believes that there is “friction” between the two entities due to data ownership issues. DiPalma also cited the U.S. Army possibly hiring other vendors in Palantir’s place.
Palantir Head of Global Communications Lisa Gordon quickly disputed DiPalma’s statement, saying:
“There is no data ownership conflict between Palantir and the Army, on Army Vantage or elsewhere. Palantir does not have or retain any ownership rights to customer data, across any of our Government or Commercial customers.”
Government revenue is extremely important for Palantir, as it receives over half of its revenue from that source.
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
