Investing $1k In Palantir A Year Ago: Here's How Much You'd Have Now

In the past, Money Digest has published some highly aspirational examples of how fortunes can be made from investing in certain stocks. For example, how rich you'd be if you bought $10,000 worth of Tesla stock in 2014. Or if you snapped up shares of Amazon in 1997 at its initial public offering (IPO). However, those cherry-picked scenarios assume that an investor is willing and able to hold a stock for a decade or more. That is, resisting the urge to sell over the years in order to lock in an already-impressive price gain rather than risk a decline.

However, lottery ticket-type gains exist in the shorter term as well. To prove it, just look at Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR), which was the number one top performing stock in the entire S&P 500 index during 2024. If you're not aware exactly what Palantir does, it's a data analytics company. According to the ETF issuer GraniteShares, "[Palantir] is best known for its platforms that help organizations integrate, analyze, and make sense of vast amounts of data. With a focus on helping decision-makers gain insights from large datasets ..." With that established, let's take a look at the data giant's meteoric rise in share price, and subsequent decline.

Historically, the types of industries to utilize Palantir's services include government and defense. For example, the U.S. military. But recently, the data mogul saw increased revenue from regular commercial businesses, too. In fact, earnings increased a whopping 43% during the third quarter of 2024. As a final bullish flourish, the company is in discussions with trendy tech names such as OpenAI and SpaceX to collaborate on lucrative government contracts. 

Okay, so what does this all mean for Palantir's stock price over the past year? To establish a benchmark, on January 8, 2024, shares closed at $16.67. After climbing steadily all year, an all-time high closing price of $82.38 was cemented on December 24, 2024. That nadir reflects the supercharged Q3 2024 earnings, five consecutive quarters of revenue growth, plus the overall stock market euphoria following Donald Trump's election victory.

However, since Christmastime, shares have dipped considerably. Several stock pros shared an opinion that, while still a promising company, Palantir's stock price had gotten ahead of itself. For example, analyst Sanjit Singh from Morgan Stanley mentions in a note to clients, "While acknowledging strong execution and momentum, we see success more than priced in at the current multiple premium." Additionally, some Palantir C-suite execs sold their shares worth upward of $36 million, which isn't exactly a vote of confidence regarding future performance. 

Now, let's take a look at how your $1,000 investment would have fared. Exactly one year ago, $1,000 would have bought approximately 60 shares (technically 59.99 shares) at $16.67 each. At the time of writing, January 8, 2025, Palantir closed at a price of $68.36. That means those same 60 shares are now worth $4,101.60 (60 * $68.36). It's doubtful that many stock jockeys will complain about quadrupling their money in only one year. But playing devil's advocate, selling a few weeks ago at the December 24, 2024 all-time closing high of $82.38 would have netted a sum of $4,942.80.

The calendar year 2024 was an undeniably great one for Palantir with shares skyrocketing 340% during that time. Best of all, you might have benefited from that outsized gain without even realizing it. That's because, like microchip designer Nvidia, many popular ETFs, mutual funds, and index funds own shares of Palantir. For example, the perennial favorite S&P 500 index funds such as SPDR's S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) both own shares of the data-turned-AI company. 

Let's face it; it's nearly impossible to time stock gyrations perfectly to replicate Palantir's ideal investing scenario as presented here. The important takeaway is to stay involved to the degree you can afford to via strategies like dollar cost averaging and regular contributions to a retirement account.