Is it time to talk about Palantir?

Ok so Palantir torched it with continued re-acceleration in total plus Gov and Commercial revenues. US looks strong as a whole. $1bn in free cash flow in TTM. Large value deal count remains elevated:-

Q3 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.10 beats by $0.01.
Revenue of $725.52M (+30.0% Y/Y) beats by $21.83M.

Q4 Outlook: Revenue of between $767 - $771 million vs. consensus of $744.04M.
Adjusted income from operations of between $298 - $302 million.

2024 Outlook: Raised revenue guidance to between $2.805 - $2.809 billion vs. consensus of $2.76B.

Raised U.S. commercial revenue guidance to in excess of $687 million, representing a growth rate of at least 50%.

Raised adjusted income from operations guidance to between $1.054 - $1.058 billion.

Raised adjusted free cash flow guidance to in excess of $1 billion.

Q3 2024 Highlights

  • Revenue grew 30% year-over-year and 7% quarter-over-quarter to $726 million (up 32% excluding strategic contracts)
  • U.S. revenue grew 44% year-over-year and 14% quarter-over-quarter to $499 million
  • U.S. commercial revenue grew 54% year-over-year and 13% quarter-over-quarter to $179 million (up 59% excluding strategic deals) and booked $297 million of U.S. commercial TCV, representing 13% growth sequentially. Total remaining deal value in our U.S. commercial business grew 73% year-over-year and 7% sequentially
  • U.S. government revenue grew 40% year-over-year and 15% quarter-over-quarter to $320 million
  • Third quarter Commercial revenue grew 27% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to $317 million. Excluding the impact from strategic commercial contracts, Commercial revenue grew 30% year-over-year and 3% sequentially. Third quarter Commercial TCV booked was $612 million, representing 52% growth year-over-year and 62% growth sequentially
  • Closed 16 deals over $10m (down from 27), 36 deals over $5m (up from 33) & 104 deals over $1 million (up from 96 in Q2)
  • Customer count grew 39% year-over-year and 6% quarter-over-quarter
  • GAAP net income of $144 million, representing a 20% margin
  • GAAP income from operations of $113 million, representing a 16% margin
  • Adjusted income from operations of $276 million, representing a 38% margin
  • Rule of 40 score of 68%
  • GAAP earnings per share (“EPS”) grew 100% year-over-year to $0.06
  • Adjusted EPS grew 43% year-over-year to $0.10
  • Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasury securities of $4.6 billion
  • Cash from operations of $420 million, representing a 58% margin and $995 million on a trailing twelve month basis
  • Adjusted free cash flow of $435 million, representing a 60% margin and over $1 billion on a trailing twelve month basis
  • RPO increased 15% QoQ to over $1.57bn
  • Billings increased 15% QoQ to $824m from $718m
  • Third quarter TCV booked was $1.1 billion, up 33% year-over-year and 16% sequentially. Net dollar retention was 118%, an increase of 400 basis points from last quarter
  • Revenue from strategic commercial contracts was $9.6 million for the quarter - and anticipate fourth quarter 2024 revenue from these customers to decline to between $6 million to $7.5 million compared to $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. “We continue to anticipate 2024 revenue from these customers to be less than 2% of full year revenue.”

Earnings Presentation:-

CEO Letter & Webcast:-

My take:-

A very strong print with very solid guidance. They have reaccelerated about as far as I could have hoped for to put them in as strong a position as possible pending lapping the AIP takeoff that occurred in Q4 a year ago.

They should continue to deliver decent double digit YoY growth underpinned by ongoing high single digit QoQ growth (and double digit QoQ growth in pockets) and supported by $1.57bn of RPO (equivalent of 2 quarters of revenue).

Positive Points of Note:-

  • US commercial growth led by AIP
  • US Gov growth now including AIP adoption
  • Defence distribution agreement with L3Harris
  • Implementation collaboration with Oracle
  • AI LLM partnering with META
  • Enhancements to complementary AIP tech features and sector specific deployment (supply chain, health, defence, oil and gas)
  • Profitability and cash flow performance
  • RPO and Total Remaining Deal Value growth

Concerns:-

  • SBC at 19.6% of Revenues in Q3
  • Ex US growth rates (sequentially negative)
  • Imminent lapping of AIP takeoff and lowering of YoY growth rates
  • Plateauing and softening of some growth, deal count, customer growth metrics
  • Potential for US Gov market saturation
  • Valuation levels
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