Palantir Reports Its Fifth Consecutive Quarter of GAAP Profitability; Fourth Quarter GAAP EPS of $0.04

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Q4 2023 Highlights

• GAAP net income of $93 million, representing a 15% margin
  • Fifth consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability
• GAAP income from operations of $66 million, representing an 11% margin
  • Fourth consecutive quarter of GAAP operating profitability
• GAAP earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.04
• Adjusted EPS of $0.08
• Revenue grew 20% year-over-year and 9% quarter-over-quarter to $608 million
• US commercial highlights
  • US commercial revenue grew 70% year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter to $131 million
  • US commercial customer count grew 55% year-over-year and 22% quarter-over-quarter to 221 customers
  • US commercial total contract value (“TCV”) of $343 million, representing 107% growth year-over-year on a dollar-weighted duration basis
  • US commercial remaining deal value (“RDV”) grew 32% year-over-year and 28% quarter-over-quarter
• Commercial revenue grew 32% year-over-year and 13% quarter-over-quarter to $284 million
• Government revenue grew 11% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter to $324 million
• Customer count grew 35% year-over-year
• Adjusted income from operations of $209 million, representing a margin of 34%
  • Fifth consecutive quarter of expanding adjusted operating margins
• Cash from operations of $301 million, representing a 50% margin
• Adjusted free cash flow of $305 million, representing a 50% margin
• Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term US treasury securities of $3.7 billion

FY 2023 Highlights

• Revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $2.23 billion
• Commercial revenue grew 20% year-over-year to $1.0 billion
  • US commercial revenue grew 36% year-over-year to $457 million
• Government revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $1.2 billion
• GAAP net income of $210 million, representing a 9% margin
• GAAP income from operations of $120 million, representing a 5% margin
• Cash from operations of $712 million, representing a 32% margin
• Adjusted free cash flow of $731 million, representing a 33% margin
• Adjusted income from operations of $633 million, representing a 28% margin

Outlook

For Q1 2024, we expect: 

• Revenue of between $612 - $616 million.
• Adjusted income from operations of $196 - $200 million.

For full year 2024, we expect:

• Revenue of between $2.652 - $2.668 billion.
• US commercial revenue in excess of $640 million, representing a growth rate of at least 40%.
• Adjusted income from operations of $834 - $850 million.
• Adjusted free cash flow of $800 million - $1 billion.
• GAAP operating income in each quarter of this year.
• GAAP net income in each quarter of this year.

CEO Letter

Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s annual letter is available through Palantir’s website at https://www.palantir.com/newsroom/letters.

Earnings Webcast

A live public webcast will be held at 3:00 PM MT / 5:00 PM ET today to discuss the results for our fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2023 and financial outlook. The webcast can be accessed by registering online at https://palantir.events/palantir-earnings-q4-2023. A replay of the webcast will be available at https://investors.palantir.com following the event.

An investor presentation, including supplemental financial information and reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to their nearest comparable GAAP measures, will be available through Palantir’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.palantir.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and statements on our earnings webcast contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our financial outlook, product development and related timing, distribution, and pricing, expected benefits of and applications for our software platforms, business strategy and plans (including strategy and plans relating to our Artificial Intelligence Platform (“AIP”), sales and marketing efforts, sales force, partnerships, and customers), investments in our business, market trends and market size, opportunities (including growth opportunities), our expectations regarding our existing and potential investments in, and commercial contracts with, various entities, our expectations regarding macroeconomic events, our expectations regarding potential eligibility or inclusion in market indices, our expectations regarding our share repurchase program, and positioning. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first issued and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Words such as “guidance,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “should,” “believe,” “hope,” “target,” “project,” “plan,” “goals,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “could,” “intend,” “shall,” and variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. Our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2023 and other filings and reports that we may file from time to time with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. In particular, the following factors, among others, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: our ability to successfully execute our business and growth strategy; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity needs; the demand for our platforms, product offerings, and services in general; our ability to increase our number of new customers and revenue generated from customers; our ability to realize some or all of the total contract value of customer contracts as revenue, including any contractual options available to customers or contractual periods that are subject to termination for convenience provisions; our long and unpredictable sales cycle; our ability to successfully execute our channel sales and other strategic initiatives with third parties; our ability to retain and expand our customer base; the fluctuation of our results of operations and our key business measures on a quarterly basis in future periods; the seasonality of our business; the implementation process for our platforms, which may be complex and lengthy; our ability to successfully develop and deploy new technologies to address the needs of our existing or prospective customers; our ability to make our platforms and product offerings easier to install, consume, and use; our ability to maintain and enhance our brand and reputation; our ability to maintain and enhance our culture as our business grows and as we pursue our business and financial goals; news or social media coverage about us, including but not limited to coverage that presents, or relies on, inaccurate, misleading, incomplete, or otherwise damaging information; the impact of recent or future global macroeconomic and geopolitical events, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Israel conflicts, heightened interest rates, monetary policy changes, or foreign currency fluctuations on the business and operations of our company or of our existing or prospective customers and partners; issues raised by the use of artificial intelligence in our platforms; and any breach or access to our or customer or third-party data.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. We undertake no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Additional Definitions

For the purpose of this press release and our earnings webcast:

• Total contract value (“TCV”) is the total potential lifetime value of contracts entered into with, or awarded by, our customers at the time of contract execution and remaining deal value (“RDV”) is the total remaining value of contracts as of the end of the reporting period. Except as noted below, TCV and RDV each presume the exercise of all contract options available to our customers and no termination of contracts. However, the majority of our contracts are subject to termination provisions, including for convenience, and there can be no guarantee that contracts are not terminated or that contract options will be exercised. Further, RDV may exclude all or some portion of the value of certain commercial contracts as a result of our ongoing assessments of customers’ financial condition, including the consideration of such customers’ ability and intention to pay, and whether such contracts continue to meet the criteria for revenue recognition, among other factors.
• Remaining performance obligations (“RPO”) reflect the total values of contracts that have been entered into with, or awarded by, our customers, and represent non-cancelable contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized, which includes deferred revenue and, in certain instances, amounts that will be invoiced. We have elected the practical expedient, as permitted under Accounting Standards Codification 606—Revenue from Contracts with Customers, to not disclose remaining performance obligations for contracts with original terms of twelve months or less.
• The term “strategic commercial contracts” is as defined in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2023.
• “Dollar-weighted duration basis” is the total value of contracts closed in the applicable period, divided by the dollar-weighted average duration of those same contracts.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and the accompanying tables, as well as our earnings webcast, and our CEO’s letter, contain the non-GAAP financial measures adjusted income from operations, which excludes stock-based compensation and related employer payroll taxes; adjusted operating margin; adjusted free cash flow; adjusted free cash flow margin; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“adjusted EBITDA”); adjusted EBITDA margin; adjusted net income attributable to common stockholders; and adjusted earnings per share (“EPS”), diluted.

We believe these non-GAAP financial measures and other metrics described in this press release help us evaluate our business, identify trends affecting Palantir’s business, formulate business plans and financial projections, and make strategic decisions. We exclude stock-based compensation, which is a non-cash expense, from these non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that excluding this item provides meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance and provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management team. We exclude employer payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation as it is difficult to predict and outside of Palantir’s control.

Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Further, these metrics have certain limitations as they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statements of operations. For example, adjusted free cash flow does not reflect our future contractual commitments or the total increase or decrease in our cash balances for a given period. Thus, our non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

We compensate for these limitations by providing a reconciliation of each of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure. We encourage investors and others to review our business, results of operations, and financial information in their entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure, and to view these non-GAAP measures in conjunction with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

A reconciliation table of the most comparable GAAP financial measure to each non-GAAP financial measure used in this press release is included at the end of this release. A reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, reconciling items that may be incurred in the future, such as stock-based compensation and related employer payroll taxes, the effect of which may be significant.

Available Information

Palantir uses its Investor Relations website at https://investors.palantir.com as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor Palantir’s Investor Relations website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, and webcasts.

About Palantir Technologies Inc.

Foundational software of tomorrow. Delivered today. Additional information is available at https://www.palantir.com.

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