New York, February 19, 2026, 17:23 (ET) — After-hours.
Palantir Technologies Inc. shares slipped 0.3% to $134.89 in after-hours trading on Thursday after WIRED reported the U.S. Department of Homeland Security signed a five-year blanket purchase agreement worth up to $1 billion with the data-analytics firm. The report said the vehicle would let DHS units including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement buy under preset terms, and quoted Palantir executive Akash Jain acknowledging “increased concern” around the company’s existing work with ICE. (WIRED)
The headline hit a stock that has been swinging with sentiment on high-growth software. Palantir shares are down more than 25% so far in 2026, after a big run, leaving traders quick to react to contract signals and analyst notes. (Barron’s)
A blanket purchase agreement, or BPA, is a pre-negotiated setup that allows government buyers to place orders without running a new competition each time. A DHS contract listing described the Palantir deal as a single-award BPA and showed $0 obligated at the award stage. (Federal Compass)
Separately, Rackspace Technology and Palantir said on Wednesday they struck a partnership aimed at getting Palantir Foundry and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP, into production faster with managed operations. “Organizations need AI that works in production, not just in demos,” Rackspace CEO Gajen Kandiah said. (Rackspace Technology)
Mizuho Securities upgraded Palantir to “Outperform” from “Neutral” on Wednesday and kept its $195 price target, saying the pullback had made the risk-reward look attractive again. Analyst Gregg Moskowitz wrote the company was “in a category of its own” with margin expansion “unmatched in large-scale software.” (MarketScreener UK)
The company has also been in the headlines for reasons that don’t show up in revenue tables. A U.S. judge in Manhattan on Wednesday partially granted Palantir’s request to stop two former employees from soliciting its staff for their new AI firm, while allowing them to keep working there. (Reuters)
Palantir earlier this month reported fourth-quarter revenue rose 70% to $1.407 billion, and it forecast full-year 2026 revenue of $7.182 billion to $7.198 billion. It also said it expects GAAP — the standard U.S. accounting measure — operating income and net income in each quarter of 2026. (SEC)
But the DHS agreement is a contract vehicle, not a guarantee of funded work, and timing can be messy even when the ceiling looks big. Any slowdown in federal ordering, or pushback tied to immigration enforcement work, could leave the stock leaning on commercial momentum instead.
With regular trading done for the day, the next test comes when U.S. markets reopen on Friday, February 20. Traders will watch for any follow-up filings or customer updates that put numbers behind the DHS setup and the Rackspace rollout.
