Palantir Director Deletes X Account After ‘ETF Buying’ Post

(Bloomberg) — A Palantir Technologies Inc board member deleted his X account after posting last week that the company’s plan to move its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange was intended to cater to retail investors.

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Alex Moore, a partner at Eight Partners LLC, who has been on Palantir’s board since 2020, posted that the company was moving its listing “because it will force billions in ETF buying,” potentially driving up the share price to the benefit of existing investors.

The software company said on Nov. 14 that it will transfer the listing of its Class A Common Stock to Nasdaq, and expects to begin trading as a Nasdaq-listed company on Nov. 26. The filing from Palantir did not provide any specific rationale for the change.

The company said in a filing that it expects to be eligible for inclusion in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index. That would force ETFs that track the index, such as the roughly $300 billion Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, to buy shares. Palantir shares soared more than 14% on the first trading day after it was announced in September they would be joining the S&P 500 Index.

Moore, who was one of the founding employees of Palantir and worked at the company from 2005 to 2010, said the move would deliver “tendies” — a meme-stock term for gains — to retail investors.

A spokesperson from Palantir declined to comment. Moore did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment on the post.

“Board members should not be making posts like this regarding the companies they serve,” said Amy Lynch, a former regulator with the the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and founder of FrontLine Compliance.

The SEC will look at all trading activity and Reddit posts to see what was happening at the time of the tweet and who benefited from the tweet via transactions, Lynch said. While nothing may come of their investigation, it’s possible the company could look to remove him from the board, she added.

Palantir has long been a favorite among retail investors, garnering frequent mention on sites like Reddit Inc.’s WallStreetBets forum. Alex Karp, co-founder and chief executive officer of Palantir previously said he prefers the company’s retail investors and thinks analysts don’t understand the company.

After debuting in September 2020, the stock more than quadrupled during the meme-stock frenzy of early 2021. It crashed back within a year and languished until taking off again last year.

Wall Street analysts, meanwhile, have remained cautious on the stock after it tripled in 10 months. Only three of the 20 who cover it rate the stock as a buy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares trade at 136 times forward earnings, more than five times the average price-to-share ratio in the Nasdaq 100.

Shares of Palantir closed 6.9% lower on Monday, its worst one-day drop since July 24. The stock has more than tripled this year.

–With assistance from Lizette Chapman and Sunil Kesur.

(Adds comments in paragraph eight, updates stock moves at market close.)