New York, Feb 21, 2026, 11:44 (EST) — Market closed.
- Palantir shares last closed up about 0.3% on Friday at $135.24.
- A report said U.S. DHS signed a five-year blanket purchase agreement worth up to $1 billion with Palantir.
- A late-Friday SEC Form 144 outlined a proposed sale by a Palantir officer.
Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.O) shares ended Friday up about 0.3% at $135.24, as investors weighed a report of a new U.S. government purchasing deal against a fresh insider-sale notice.
The setup matters because Palantir has been trying to rebuild momentum after a sharp slide from last year’s highs, with investors split on whether its valuation still runs ahead of its fundamentals. Mizuho upgraded the stock to “outperform” this week and called Palantir “in a category of one,” even as the shares remain about 35% below their November peak. (Investopedia)
The contract headline is the latest reason bulls point to Washington as a demand anchor. WIRED reported the Department of Homeland Security struck a five-year blanket purchase agreement, or BPA, worth up to $1 billion for Palantir software licenses, maintenance and implementation services across DHS components. “If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work across DHS, please reach out,” Palantir executive Akash Jain wrote to employees, according to the report. (WIRED)
A BPA is a framework that sets pricing and terms; it does not require the government to spend the full amount. SiliconANGLE said the DHS arrangement would push spending through individual task orders over five years rather than as a single upfront award, with Palantir’s Gotham and Foundry platforms expected to underpin the work. (SiliconANGLE)
There was another datapoint late Friday. A Form 144 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed Palantir officer Ryan D. Taylor disclosed a proposed sale of 19,988 shares, valued at about $2.7 million. Form 144 is a notice of an intended sale; it does not confirm a trade has occurred. (SEC)
Government deals can also bring scrutiny, especially when they bypass open competition. The Financial Times reported this week that the UK Ministry of Defence repeatedly extended Palantir contracts without competition, including a follow-on award valued at £240.6 million after an earlier £75.2 million contract. (Financial Times)
In the United States, Palantir has kept stacking long-duration government hooks. The U.S. Army last year said it would consolidate multiple Palantir deals into an enterprise agreement that could run up to $10 billion over 10 years, Reuters reported. (Reuters)
Palantir has also been pitching faster deployments to commercial customers. Earlier this week, Rackspace Technology and Palantir announced a partnership to help enterprises deploy Foundry and Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, with Palantir’s Sameer Kirtane saying the software is “taking completion timelines from years to days.” (GlobeNewswire)
But the headline $1 billion DHS figure is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Task orders can come in unevenly, budgets can shift, and immigration enforcement work carries political and reputational risk that can complicate buying decisions.
When trading resumes, investors will watch for any formal paper trail around the DHS agreement — initial task orders, contract notices, anything that pins down timing and scope — and whether the stock’s recent rebound holds up with software valuations still under debate.
Markets reopen on Monday, Feb. 23, and Palantir’s next move may hinge less on the size of the deal and more on how quickly it turns into booked work.
