(Bloomberg/Felice Maranz) — The setup ahead of Palantir Technologies Inc. earnings is a familiar one: The stock hovers around a record and boasts the highest price-to-earnings ratio on the S&P 500 Index.

Wall Street has long been leery of Palantir’s runaway valuation. More than twice as many analysts assign the stock sell or hold ratings than buy. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio is 229, more than double the second-priciest tech company — Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. — and eight times as expensive as tech peers. Shares advanced as much as 4.3% in early Monday trading, touching an intraday record.

Even so, investors have kept plowing money into the stock, which also boasts a large retail following. Bulls have looked past the eye-watering P/E ratio to home in on Palantir’s growth potentia

See Full Page