Shares of Palantir Technologies (PLTR) soared after the market close. The company reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.08, which was in line with estimates. Revenue of $608.4 million topped expectations of $603.1 million. The software and AI company also issued full-year operating profit guidance that was better than expected. CEO Alex Karp says the company is seeing "surging demand... across industries and sectors for artificial intelligence platforms."

Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton report on the breaking numbers.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Let's get to some earnings. Now from Palantir, those shares up some 12% after the company reported fourth quarter earnings. And what's interesting here is the company's first quarter forecast looks to be short of estimates. But that's not dinging the shares. Fourth quarter earnings per share of $0.08. $0.076 is what analysts had been anticipating. This was also capping off the first profitable full year for the company. Also fourth quarter revenue at about $608.4 million. That is above the $603 million that analysts were anticipating.

And then finally, if we look at the first quarter revenue forecast, Palantir says, at most, its sales will be $616 million. That's at least a million short of what analysts had been anticipating. But for the full year, revenue will be $2.65 to $2.67 billion. And that's right bang on the midpoint. So maybe-- maybe investors reassured by the idea that if they're not going to make those sales in the first quarter, they seem to be making them up somewhere along the way for the year.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. What's impressive too about this-- I mean, heading into this print, the stock was basically flat so far this year, but it was already up more than 100% in the past 12 months. And you're tacking on another about 12% here in the after hours. There's going to be a lot of discussion on the call for sure about its AIP product that is-- that's the company's artificial intelligence platform. So I'm sure investors, analysts are going to want more color and commentary about customer interests and metrics, where the demand is coming from for this new tool. Conference call starts at 5:00 PM Eastern. So you can expect headlines out of that.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, most definitely. And much more maybe or at least some more hints on what's going on on the AI front there. When I was talking about forecasts, I should also mention, by the way, the operating income forecast as well, which is above for the full year what analysts had been anticipating. So that's something to note as well when you look at the stock reaction that we are seeing here, which to your point is quite impressive considering how much we've already seen the stock go up. The company still very reliant on government contracts, which is something to keep in mind when you look at what Palantir does. So their shares up 13.5% right now.

JOSH LIPTON: Big move.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes.