Palantir climbs 9% as the company expands its partnership with BP to 'accelerate energy transition'

• Palantir stock surged on Friday as the company announced an expanded partnership with BP.
• The Denver-based Big Data firm will help BP become a net-zero emissions business by 2050.
• The bullish news follows an investor letter from the Guardian Fund which talked up PLTR's prospects.

Palantir stock climbed as much as 9.5% before paring gains on Friday after the company announced it will expand its partnership with BP to 'accelerate energy transition.'

Palantir is now set to help the British multinational oil and gas company become a net-zero emissions business by 2050 or sooner.

The Big Data company will provide its Foundry software to BP in a "multi-year, multi-million dollar deal," according to a recent press release.

"We started this company to work on the hardest problems," said Shyam Sankar, COO of Palantir. "Helping deliver energy more safely and efficiently, in a disrupted market, while supporting the transformation of a business the size and scale of bp, is exactly what we built this platform to do."

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News of the expanding partnership comes just a day after The Guardian Fund released a bullish investor letter on Palantir, saying the company has a "long runway of growth ahead."

The fund posted a record year in 2020, with a 52% return net of fees and expenses. Privium, the investment manager of Guardian Fund, manages over $2.5 billion annually. In their annual investor letter, the fund lauded Palantir's prospects.

"Governments are increasingly realizing that they have to deal with serious data challenges and cyber risk. As most governments cannot attract the most talented software engineers, they need private enterprises such as Palantir to help them build solid infrastructure," the fund wrote.

"Foundry, Palantir's software for enterprises, is used by companies to make safer cars and airplanes or to accelerate cancer research. The speed to bring new clients on board is improving, and revenues will grow faster than expenses," it concluded.

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The bullish news has helped Palantir stock continue its historic run since the company's IPO. Shares have skyrocketed 265% since the end of Palantir's' first-day trading on September 30^th, 2020.

Despite the run in share prices, Palantir remains unloved by analysts, who often cite its lofty valuation of 60x sales as reasoning for their bearishness. The company holds one "buy" rating, three "neutral" ratings, and four "sell" ratings from analysts.

Palantir stock was trading at $34.71 as of 1:17PM E.T. on Friday.