What a $1,000 Bet on Palantir Stock 3 Years Ago Would Be Worth Now

Palantir’s wild ride—where data-mining mystique collides with Wall Street’s love-hate drama.

From basement-dwelling conspiracy theorists to Pentagon contracts, this stock’s got more plot twists than a spy thriller.

Three years back, you dropped a grand. Today? Let’s just say it’s either ‘private island’ or ‘ramen budget’—no in-between.

Funny how ‘big data’ riches depend on whether the market believes in magic… or just another overhyped tech grift.

Image source: Getty Images.

Palantir over the last three years

If one had bought Palantir on Aug. 8, 2022, a $1,000 investment WOULD be worth about $15,700 today.

PLTR data by YCharts

Three years ago, a dramatic pullback from the highs of the 2021 bull market left Palantir trading below $10 per share, the approximate level where it sold on its first day of trading on Sept. 30, 2020.

Additionally, it got off to a slow start as it briefly fell below $6 per share in December 2022. Nonetheless, Palantir began moving higher in 2023, particularly after Open AI's release of an upgraded version of ChatGPT put the spotlight on generative AI.

Palantir responded with its own generative AI solution, the artificial intelligence platform (AIP), in April 2023. Customers began reporting massive productivity gains. Over time, the stock's growth accelerated as revenue growth began to rise at a significantly faster rate.

Consequently, the stock reached stratospheric highs, with a P/E ratio approaching 600. Although such earnings multiples can be common with growth stocks, its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 130 all but verifies that the market has priced the stock for perfection. That increases the odds of a dramatic fall at the slightest hint of bad news.

However, few can deny the success of Palantir's investors over the last three years. Even if its near-term prospects are less clear, Palantir should succeed long term, since its tools have delivered massive productivity gains for its customers.