Citron Research's Andrew Left is going after Palantir with the kind of discipline and singleminded focus that is certainly admirable, if a tad too aggressive. After all, the seemingly indomitable short-seller has just tripled down on his $40 per share price target for the high-flying stock.
While speaking on Fox Business recently, Citron Research's Andrew Left had boldly declared that he was now short on Palantir, and that he added to his bearish bet on the stock in the aftermath of Palantir's latest quarterly earnings release, going so far as to label his negative thesis on the stock as "obvious.
Then, earlier this week, Left doubled down on his bearish conviction in relation to Palantir by formally pegging a $40 "generous" price target on the high-momentum stock.
Interestingly, Left used OpenAI's price-to-sales multiple of around 17x as the basis for his depressed stock price target for Palantir.
As a refeesher, OpenAI is gearing up to command a valuation of around $500 billion on $29.6 billion in projected sales for 2026, which yields a price-to-sales multiple of 16.89x.
By applying this 17x multiple to Palantir's 2026 consensus revenue estimate of $5.6 billion, Citron Research computed a $95.2 billion theoretical valuation estimate for the high-flying stock, which equates to the now-infamous $40 per share price target.
Today, Citron Research demonstrated how remarkably similar are Palantir and Databricks, as per a number of key metrics. For instance, both companies have nearly the same annual revenue and gross margin. Databricks has a higher net revenue retention rate though. Do note that we have chosen to ignore the future growth projection metric that Citron Research used due to its subjective nature.
Citron Research then applies Databrick's $100 billion valuation to Palantir, again yielding its now-infamous $40 per share price target.
Palantir shares are down 16 percent over the past 5 trading days, and down another 2 percent in today's pre-market trading session. Citron Research certainly has a knack for picking the right time to go short on Palantir. After all, the AI narrative has taken a serious blow after a recent MIT report revealed that a whopping 95 percent of generative AI projects are not producing any ROI (read the report here).
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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