Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR 2.37%) climbed 2.33% to close at $160.84 on Tuesday. The stock traded between $154.57 and $162.13 during the session, with volume reaching 82 million shares, above its three-month average of 71.21 million. The company's market capitalization now stands at $385.21 billion. Shares remain well below their 52-week high of $189.46 but are up significantly from the year's low of $29.31.
Broader equity markets also finished in positive territory. The S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.41%) rose 26.62 points, or 0.41%, to 6,465.94, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.44%) added 94.98 points, or 0.44%, to 21,544.27.
Peers in the software sector ended lower. Snowflake (SNOW -0.04%) slipped 0.17% to 194.35, while Datadog (DDOG -1.52%) dropped 1.61% to 126.31. The divergence highlights Palantir's relative strength compared with other cloud and data analytics firms.
The stock's rise came despite recent headlines highlighting insider selling and profit-taking. Barron's reported that CEO Alex Karp sold more than $60 million worth of shares, while Business Insider noted that Palantir has faced elevated short-seller interest and investor profit-taking since mid-August. Even so, today's above-average trading volume indicated ongoing investor demand.
Investors will be watching whether Palantir can sustain momentum in the face of insider sales and short-seller pressure, with upcoming earnings likely to serve as the next key catalyst.
Market data sourced from Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.
