Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.\u00a0In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia.\u00a0For the first time in years, that same “Total Conviction” signal is flashing for a company 1\/100th the size of Nvidia.\u00a0Continue \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n A margin that extreme deserves a closer look, because how Palantir earns its 55 cents matters as much as the figure itself. <\/p>\n Image source: The Motley Fool. <\/p>\n The operating engine does most of it <\/p>\n Most of Palantir’s profit is exactly what it looks like. Income from operations was $912 million in the second quarter, a 47% operating margin — up from 27% in the year-ago quarter and 46% in the first quarter of 2026. The year-over-year jump is operating leverage in its purest form: revenue<\/a> grew 93% while operating expenses rose just 34%, on a gross margin of about 85%. <\/p>\n And management’s preferred summary of the quarter was a Rule of 40 score (revenue growth plus adjusted operating margin) of 155%. <\/p>\n “The sovereign AI revolution makes us very optimistic about the future,” CEO Alex Karp said in the earnings release. <\/p>\n However you feel about the stock, that operating line is the most important part of the margin story. And it repeated, which matters. The first quarter ran a 46% operating margin, so this is now the established level, not a spike. <\/p>\n Interest and a tiny tax bill <\/p>\n The remaining 8 cents come from below the operating line. <\/p>\n Palantir ended June with $9.2 billion of cash, equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasuries, and that pile generated $77.5 million of interest income in the quarter. Another $91.8 million arrived as other non-operating income. And the tax bill was the unusual part. On $1.08 billion of pre-tax income, it came to about $15 million — an effective rate of about 1.4%. <\/p>\n Run the same quarter at the 21% U.S. statutory rate instead, and the net margin lands closer to 44%. Still remarkable, just not 55%. <\/p>\n To be fair, this isn’t a one-quarter quirk. The first quarter showed the same shape, with a 53% net margin against that 46% operating margin. But tax rates this low tend not to last as profitable companies scale, and interest income is a return on the cash pile, not on the software. The gap between 47 and 55 is the part of the margin a shareholder probably shouldn’t count on keeping. <\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Can it hold? <\/p>\n Management’s own outlook says the profitability isn’t going anywhere this year. Alongside the second-quarter report, Palantir raised its 2026 revenue guidance to between $8.150 billion and $8.158 billion, which implies 82% growth over 2025. It lifted its outlook for U.S. commercial revenue, the fastest-growing piece of the business, to more than $3.4 billion after that line grew 149% year over year to $764 million in the quarter. <\/p>\n On the profitability side, it guided to adjusted income from operations of about $4.9 billion and adjusted free cash flow of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion, or about 55% to 58% of guided revenue. And the company said it continues to expect positive operating income and net income, under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), in each quarter of this year. <\/p>\n The honest version of the headline number, then, goes like this. About 47 of the 55 cents come from the software business itself, before any tax. The rest is interest and other non-operating income, plus a tax rate that won’t stay near zero forever. Palantir’s own non-GAAP math assumes a long-term rate of 23%. And big profitable software companies do eventually pay something close to it. <\/p>\n I think that distinction matters mostly because of the price. Shares sit near $174 as of this writing, and the stock trades at more than 150 times earnings — a valuation that treats today’s extraordinary economics as a permanent feature. <\/p>\n That assumption leaves the work to revenue growth. A company already converting revenue to profit at this rate has little room to expand margins further — from the first quarter to the second, the operating margin inched from 46% to 47%. From here, the stock’s case rests almost entirely on growth staying extreme. <\/p>\n The profitability is exceptional, and most of it is the right kind. But at more than 150 times earnings, the price already assumes all of it continues. <\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Palantir Technologies right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: <\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Palantir Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. <\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $429,223!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,318,055!* <\/p>\n Now, it’s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor’s total average return is 965% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 212% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. <\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of August 22, 2026. <\/p>\n Daniel Sparks<\/a> and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/a> <\/p>\n