Palantir’s June Squeeze: Record Backlog Meets Activist Proposals and a Stock 36% Off Its Peak

Palantir posts 85% revenue growth and $11.8B obligations, but stock is down 36% from highs. Shareholders vote on defense ethics amid valuation fears.

When Palantir shareholders gather for the annual meeting on June 3, they will confront two starkly different narratives. The data analytics firm just posted its eleventh straight quarter of accelerating revenue growth, with first-quarter 2026 sales surging 85% year over year and remaining performance obligations swelling to $11.8 billion. Yet the stock trades nearly 36% below its 52-week high of €179.86 in Frankfurt, and has fallen 19% since the start of the year. The tension between operational firepower and market skepticism will be on full display.

Analysts remain decidedly bullish. Freedom Broker recently lifted its price target from $170 to $230, arguing that demand for AI solutions in national security now outstrips implementation capacity. Phillip Securities followed with an increase from $190 to $202. The consensus from 29 brokerages tracked by Zacks Investment Research stands at $192 — well above the current level. At the Frankfurt close on Friday, shares changed hands at €115.38, a discount that the company’s advocates attribute to short-term valuation headwinds rather than any fundamental deterioration.

The growth story itself is broad. Palantir is betting on a multi-trillion-dollar wave of US reindustrialization, with its Warp Speed initiative and Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) positioned as the operating systems for next-generation American manufacturing. In the defense sector, a recent hackathon with the US Army underscored its ambitions, while a $300 million contract with the Department of Agriculture demonstrates how the company is scaling its technology beyond traditional intelligence work. The management has guided for second-quarter revenue of $1.8 billion, comfortably ahead of the analyst consensus.

What complicates the picture is the valuation mathematics. With a forward price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 97 and a price-to-sales multiple near 62, any misstep carries outsized consequences. The stock has already lost another 4% in the past 30 days. Net margin of almost 44% is impressive for a software company of this size, but it does little to silence critics who argue the share price has run ahead of reality.

The annual meeting injects a fresh layer of uncertainty. Shareholders will vote on two proposals that the board opposes: one calling for disclosure of due diligence practices in the defense business, and another requesting an assessment of human rights risks tied to the company’s technology. Institutional pressure has been building. New York City’s comptroller demanded an independent risk review of Palantir’s relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. The Netherlands’ largest pension fund, ABP, has already exited its position. Public pension funds in California, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Oregon are facing calls from beneficiaries to do the same.

The vote itself will not move the revenue line in the near term. But it sharpens the question of whether the ethical scrutiny surrounding Palantir’s government contracts — the very engine of its recent acceleration — could eventually dent growth or reputation. So far, the activist wave has not materially affected the business model. The next hard data point arrives on August 3, when the company reports second-quarter results. Until then, the management’s ability to hit that ambitious $1.8 billion target will determine whether the analyst price targets gain traction or the valuation gap widens further.