Raymond James initiated coverage with a "strong buy" rating and $20 price target
Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) is up 5.1% to trade at $10.62 this morning, after Raymond James initiated coverage on the stock with a "strong buy" rating and $20 price target. The firm sees high growth potential for PLTR, and said the company "nearly doubled its revenue from 2018 to 2020, crossing the billion dollar sales mark, and we believe the company will nearly double again and flirt with the $2B revenue mark in 2022."
Palantir stock has slowly climbed since its May 12 record low of $6.44. Today's pop has the equity breaking above recent pressure just below the $10.50 level, as well as the stock's 100-day moving average, which has loomed above since November 2021. Year-to-date, PLTR is still down 42.6%.
There is ample room for more bull notes, as only four of 15 analysts in coverage carried a "buy" or better rating heading into today. Meanwhile, short interest makes up 6.1% of the stock's available float.
Despite calls outnumbering puts on an absolute basis, the stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.54 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is in the elevated 98th percentile of its annual range. In other words, this suggests a very healthy appetite for long puts of late.
Furthermore, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a 93 out of 100. This means PLTR has exceeded option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.