Palantir Beat on Every Key Earnings Metric. Why Its Stock Still Fell. -- Barrons.com
Data-wrangling software company Palantir Technologies reported strong first-quarter earnings results Monday night. Its shares fell Tuesday nonetheless.While Palantir beat Wall Street expectations on all its key metrics -- sales, adjusted operating margin, and adjusted free cash flow margin -- analysts at Jefferies were quick to point out the weak spots.Of note were "the slight miss in the U.S. Commercial segment" and "the first deceleration we've seen in the last two years," they wrote in a Tuesday morning note. Palantir reported sales of $595 million, but analysts were expecting closer to $605 million.They also called out the current quarter's guidance for "not being high enough.". The company and CEO Alex Karp have become political lightning rods, but that didn't slow it down in the first quarter. Palantir is the rare exception of a company that can grow sales by 85% and still garner adjusted profit margins over 50%."Palantir reported another strong quarter with upside driven by acce