By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Palantir Technologies stock (NYSE:PLTR) plunged 14% Thursday as meaningful profits stayed elusive for one more quarter at the defense software supplier.
Net income is “within sight,” Bloomberg quoted CEO Alex Karp as telling analysts on a call.
Adding to the gloom is the company guiding for an erosion in adjusted operating margin, by 4 percentage points to 27% for the year. It is seen at 23% in the current quarter.
Palantir has driven its business on sales of defense software to the U.S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other government bodies. So, business from the government contributed close to 60% of the 2021 revenue of $1.54 billion. Many are not comfortable with the revenue split. When confronted, Chief Operating Officer Shyam Sankar pointed to the company's net dollar retention rate, according to Reuters. Sankar told the agency it reveals the "stickiness" of its software with customers.
Disclosing the metric for the first time in its results statement today, Palantir reported a net dollar retention rate of 131% in 2021 with a 150% rate in its U.S. commercial business.
Total quarterly revenue grew 34% year-over-year to $433 million. Commercial revenue was up 47%, reflecting the company’s focus on bagging more of those contracts, as commercial customers tripled from a year ago. And revenue from government grew by 26% year-over-year.
"You are starting to see that the U.S. commercial business is starting to dominate the business. Two years ago, it was 6% of revenue and now it is 13% of the revenue," Sankar told Reuters.
On an adjusted basis, profit per share was 2 cents compared to 3 cents last year, falling short of estimates.
In the current quarter, revenue is seen at $443 million. The company continues to guide for annual revenue growth of at least 30% through 2025.