We recently published a list of 10 Trending AI Stocks to Watch for the Rest of 2024. Since Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR)  ranks 10th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.

Chris Hyzy, Merrill & Bank of America Private Bank chief investment officer, said while talking to CNBC in a latest program that there is “ a lot of momentum” behind the market rally. The analyst said that to gauge how much momentum we have behind the optimism, we need to analyze the “wedge” in the market.

“The biggest wedge that was in the market last year and in 2022 was inflation. That’s beginning to go away. It’s almost to the fact that no one’s is talking about whether or not we are going to have inflation that’s worrisome.”

Hyzy said that the Fed easing its fiscal policy and now China “joining the party” will be two key tailwinds for the market.

Answering a question about the hard landing vs soft landing debate, the analyst said we should look beyond the two possibilities as he believes there are many other scenarios to consider in between these two outcomes.

“We have a lot of components of a soft landing. I’d like to say it’s more of a mid-cycle slowdown with easier financial conditions that should actually create a profit revision to the upside not downside,” Hyzy added.

For this article we picked top 10 trending AI stocks on the back of latest news and analyst ratings. With each company we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

PalantirTechnologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 44

Commenting on PalantirTechnologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR)’s  multi-year, multimillion-dollar extension of its enterprise deal with energy company APA Corporation,  Wedbush’s Dan Ives said the “Messi of AI” Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) will keep expanding its deal flow and AI use cases:

“We believe the Messi of AI Palantir is in a prime spot to continue expanding its pipeline/deal flow while providing more use cases coming forward to address critical problems across industries and empower data-driven decision-making with a comprehensive suite of AI/ML solutions.”

Wedbush has kept its Outperform rating on the stock and raised its 12-month price target to $45 from $38.

“New and existing customers across the commercial and federal landscapes continue signing up for multiple aspects of the PLTR tech stack based on our recent checks as the company introduces new valuable use cases to customers with more organizations seeking to drive efficiencies on the back of AI,” Ives noted.

What makes Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) one of the top AI stocks? Its technologies are actually solving the problems of businesses. Palantir’s data technology Ontology is solving the famous hallucination problem for AI systems, thanks to the company’s years of experience with military and defense systems. Earlier this year at an event with customers, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) shared some specifics on how its customers are being able to reduce costs and increase profits due to its artificial intelligence platform (AIP) that was launched about a year ago.

Airbus accelerated A350 production by 33%, BP reduced costs per barrel by 60%, and Jacobs Connect cut power usage by 30%. Panasonic decreased waste by 12%, ESI Group sped up ERP harmonization by 70%, and PG&E reduced transformer ignitions by 65%. Eaton boosted productivity by 25%, while Tyson Foods achieved $200 million in cost savings.

However, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) stock’s valuation has been a concern for many.

The stock is trading at about 21.2 times the next 12 months (NTM) revenue. For fiscal year 2024, Palantir expects revenue growth of 24% year-over-year (YoY) to $2.746 billion, with an adjusted operating income of $970 million, representing a 35.3% margin. However, revenue growth is expected to slow over the next two years, with estimates suggesting a 22% YoY growth rate, potentially bringing revenues to around $4 billion by fiscal 2026. If Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) can improve margins by 100 basis points annually, it would be able to generate about $1.5 billion in adjusted operating income by FY26, with a present value of $1.3 billion when discounted at 8%. Applying an S&P 500-like growth multiple of 2.5 to 2.75 times earnings, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) would have a P/E of 46, translating to a price target of $27, significantly down from its current price of $36.

Carillon Scout Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“The top contributor to return for the quarter was Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR). Sentiment improved on Palantir after it reported stronger than expected commercial customer revenue and free cash flow. U.S. commercial growth was especially encouraging, as U.S. commercial revenue was up by a large percentage year over year for the fourth quarter and U.S. commercial customer count grew nearly as much. We expect Palantir to become one of the premier artificial intelligence (AI) software providers, built on its Foundry and AIP platforms.”

Overall, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) ranks 10th on Insider Monkey’s list titled 10 Trending AI Stocks to Watch for the Rest of 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PLTR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.