Palantir Technologies, Kleos Space, Apple - The attack: Big data 2022!

Palantir Technologies - Interesting again at a significantly lower level

Not all technology stocks were able to shine in terms of price in 2021. Palantir Technologies went public in 2020 at USD 8.5 on the NASDAQ and rose to USD 45 at its peak. However, the price fell so sharply in the second half of the year that it is down 32% on a 12-month basis at USD 18.8.

Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings. In its early years, the Company focused on software designed to help government institutions fight terrorism. Gotham software allows the US military to digitally monitor potential insurgents or even terrorists in crisis areas. Only in recent years has Palantir shifted its business model more and more to specific enterprise issues. In this area, data is harnessed as a decision-making aid and source of information. The Company thus ensures that processes run smoothly and stability is guaranteed in times of crisis and uncertainty. The Company's strength lies in its ability to create an accurate and comprehensive model from countless and unconnected data points.

The stock trend has been battered since the announcement of the last quarterly figures, and the downward trend has manifested itself. Nevertheless, Palantir is growing steadily and successfully but also investing a lot. The Company nearly doubled its revenues from USD 595 million to USD 1.1 billion over the past two years. For Q4, Palantir is now forecasting quarterly revenue of USD 418 million, up 30% from the year-ago quarter. The stock is analytically expensive (P/S of 22), yet it is possible to grow into the valuation in 2 to 3 years with dynamic growth. Initial speculative positions can therefore be established between USD 16 and 20.

Kleos Space SA - The setup for 2022 is in place

A data supplier for Palantir's military applications could also be the Australian Company Kleos Space SA. The high-technology company, based in Luxembourg, is listed in Australia. Kleos puts satellites into orbit to remotely sense maritime and land-based radio and motion activity and process it for customers. Here, things become visible that are often deliberately hidden due to criminal intelligence - all application areas with high explosiveness and qualitative demands in security and validity.

Kleos has now confirmed that its Patrol Mission satellites are on track for launch aboard SpaceX's Transporter-3 mission in January 2022. This milestone also means that the relevant satellites have successfully cleared the final technical hurdles with satellite builder Innovative Solutions In Space (ISISPACE). In December, the mission satellites traveled from the Netherlands to the Launch Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida, where they will be prepared for flight, inserted into dispensers and integrated into the launch vehicle by Spaceflight. The launch expands Kleos' reconnaissance capabilities to three clusters of four satellites each, bringing the total number of satellites patrolling against illegal activities such as piracy, drug smuggling and border security issues to 12.

The new installation will allow Kleos to increase its average daily verification rate over an area of 15 degrees latitude to approximately five times per day. Andy Bowyer, CEO of Kleos Space, said, "Each new mission features improved hardware and software capabilities, leveraging lessons learned from previous launches." The Company's fourth cluster, the Observer mission, is scheduled to launch in mid-2022. At AUD 0.74, Kleos has a market capitalization of AUD 133.2 million, a fraction of Palantir's.

Apple - At the zenith of digital communication

The most valuable technology company globally is Apple Inc. from Cupertino, California. Founded in 1976 by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne as a garage company, Apple was among the first manufacturers of personal computers. With the introduction of the graphical user interface and the mouse in the 1980s, Apple took a pioneering role with the Lisa and Macintosh computers. With the release of the iPod (2001), iPhone (2007) and iPad (2010), Apple gradually expanded its business into other product areas.

Today, Apple is an integrated high-tech company that has designed its hardware products so that users' demands for software and services are always within Apple's world. Apple loses virtually no business to the outside world - the iPhone is the entry device into an all-encompassing world of data & services. With this concept, the Californians, who have all hardware manufactured in China, bring it to an annual revenue of just under USD 340 billion in 2021. Shareholders' net profit doubled from USD 48 billion to a good USD 95 billion in the last 5 years. Some USD 200 billion in debt has been raised through 2021 to buy back treasury shares. Market capitalization reached a new record high of about USD 2.9 trillion in December.

Analytically, Apple is growing in revenue by about 10% per annum, and the price-to-sales ratio is currently about 7.5. On a net income basis, the P/E ratio is about 26. Apple is the largest and most important stock globally with a 6.8% weight in the S&P 500, and there are 33 positive votes from 37 analysts and only 1 underweight recommendation. The stock has now gained 500% in 5 years - so we dare to make a bold prediction: in 2022, it will no longer be one of the best-performing stocks. When to exit Apple as a shareholder is and remains a philosophical question; it is, in fact, impossible to answer. In the last 5 years, "Buying the dip" has always been successful.

The companies considered here have one major thing in common. They collect and analyze data from third parties and resell it after successful processing. In Apple's case, the data is needed to run its business model. Kleos Space is a data specialist and niche player with very high relevance for public clients.