GOP Megadonor Ken Griffin‘s fund Citadel Advisors LLC made a major shift within the AI-linked investment universe by slashing its stake in Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) and more than tripling its stake in Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), as per its third quarter 13F filings with the SEC.
Citadel Cuts Stake In Palantir
Having been on both the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges this year, Palantir’s shares have risen by 298.37% year-to-date. This compares to 20% and 25% moves in the NYSE Composite and Nasdaq 100 Index, respectively, in the same period.
Alex Karp-led company deals with providing access to artificial intelligence targeting tools to the government and military contracts. Knowing Palantir's business it's unlikely for the financial market participants to peg this company for having a vehement, meme-making fandom.
However, its chief executive officer, Griffin-led fund – Citadel, has decisively cut its exposure to Palantir in the third quarter.
The fund boosted its call positions by 91% and put positions by 55%, but significantly reduced its ownership from 5.68 million shares to 508,086 shares in the third quarter—a 91% decline—bringing the stake’s value to $18,900 as of Sept. 30.
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Citadel Increase Stake In Nvidia
Nvidia shares have also outperformed the Nasdaq 100 Index as it has zoomed by 181% on a year-to-date basis. It has also been in a tight race with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) in terms of market capitalization. While it has surpassed Apple’s market cap earlier, at the time of the publication of this article Apple was ahead with a market cap of $3.551 trillion, while the Jensen Huang-led company stood at $3.314 trillion.
Citadel, one of the largest funds in the U.S., holds positions across 14,115 companies with a total invested value of $518.2 billion. The fund increased its stake by 194% to 7.122 million shares amounting to $864.96 million in Nvidia during the third quarter.
The AI industry’s bellwether, Nvidia, under the leadership of Huang, has issued optimistic projections for the forthcoming quarter and fiscal year 2025. This positive outlook is underpinned by the escalating production of the Blackwell chip.
Analyst Views On Palantir And Nvidia
According to Benzinga pro data, Palantir has a consensus price target of $30.22 apiece based on the ratings of 18 analysts. The highest price target among all the analysts tracked by Benzinga is $75 issued by BofA Securities on Nov. 25, whereas the lowest price target is $7.5 issued by Wolfe Research on Aug. 8, 2023.
The average price target of $63.67 between BofA Securities, Wedbush, and Goldman Sachs implies a 3.83% downside for Palantir.
According to Benzinga pro data, Nvidia has a consensus price target of $170.56 apiece based on the ratings of 40 analysts. The highest price target among all the analysts tracked by Benzinga is $220 per share issued by Rosenblatt on Nov. 21, whereas the lowest price target is $120 apiece issued by New Street Research on Aug. 6.
The average price target of $154.67 between DA Davidson, Phillip Securities, and Truist Securities implies a 13.74% upside for Nvidia.
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