New York, February 18, 2026, 17:25 EST — After-hours.
- Palantir shares rose about 1.8% after the bell after a volatile session
- Mizuho upgraded the stock to “outperform” and kept a $195 price target
- SEC filings showed a Miami-area headquarters address and a fresh batch of shares registered for employee awards
Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.O) shares rose about 1.8% to $135.38 in after-hours trading on Wednesday after a broker upgrade helped steady the AI-focused software group’s stock. The shares swung between $133.72 and $140.92 in the session and traded about 59.4 million shares.
The move matters because Palantir sits at the intersection of defense tech and enterprise analytics, and it has become a proxy bet for artificial intelligence, or AI, in public markets.
Fresh filings and a court order put the spotlight back on two basics: how fast Palantir can grow, and how much stock it hands out to keep talent from walking.
Mizuho Securities analyst Gregg Moskowitz upgraded Palantir to “outperform” from “neutral” and kept a $195 price target, calling the company’s sales growth and margin expansion “unlike anything else in software.” He also described Palantir’s AI offering as “in a category of one” and said the risk-reward looked better after a recent slide in the shares. (Nasdaq)
In its annual report for the year ended Dec. 31, Palantir listed its principal executive office in Aventura, Florida, while also showing its former Denver address. The filing showed 2025 revenue rose 56% to $4.48 billion, split between $2.40 billion from government customers and $2.07 billion from commercial clients, while net income climbed to $1.63 billion. (SEC)
Another SEC filing, a Form S-8, registered about 119.6 million shares that became available for issuance under Palantir’s 2020 equity incentive plan on Jan. 1. The S-8 is the form companies use to register stock that may be issued to employees, and it can add to dilution — a smaller slice for existing holders — over time. (SEC)
A federal judge in Manhattan granted Palantir’s request to block a former vice president and a senior engineer from soliciting its employees to join a competing start-up, Percepta AI, while the company’s lawsuit moves forward. Judge Paul Oetken also barred a former Palantir engineer now at Percepta from breaching a confidentiality agreement, but he declined to block the defendants from competing with Palantir or soliciting customers for now, Reuters reported. (Reuters)
The dispute is a reminder that for all the talk about platforms and models, a lot still comes down to people — and who gets to hire them.
But Palantir remains a stock that can gap on sentiment. Any hint that growth is slowing, or that stock-based pay is rising faster than revenue, can hit the shares hard.
Traders will take their next cue from follow-on analyst calls and the first-quarter update, expected on May 11, according to Investing.com. Until then, filings and courtroom headlines may do more of the driving than product news. (Investing)
