logo
PennDOT invests nearly $10M to improve PA airports; $6.2M for WB/Scranton

PennDOT invests nearly $10M to improve PA airports; $6.2M for WB/Scranton

Yahoo6 days ago

Jun. 3—WILKES-BARRE — The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Tuesday announced a $10 million state investment in projects at five public use airports — including $6.2 million for upgrades at the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport.
The funding for seven airports in four counties will be used for facility improvements, infrastructure preservation and development — supporting safe, reliable infrastructure, while growing the Commonwealth's economy.
Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport received the largest single allocation in this round of funding.
Sen. Marty Flynn, D-Scranton, said the state funding at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will go toward expanding the terminal and modernizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening area.
Carl Beardsley, executive director at the airport, said the total project cost estimate is $18.3 million. He said in addition to the $6.2 million announced Tuesday, the airport has received other funding from IIJA-AIG, AIP, Supplemental AIP, PFC.
"The primary goals of the project are to improve the passenger's experience and well-being at the airport," Beardsley said. "These goals will be accomplished by expanding the terminal space approximately 10,000 square feet and incorporating the latest screening technology, increasing queuing space for security screening, providing space for social distancing, improving air quality and other public health measures."
Additionally, Beardsley said implementing a separate exit lane for off-boarding passengers will reduce the conflict that currently exists with inbound and outbound passengers crossing each other near the stairs/escalators.
"These improvements will help minimize the spread of pathogens," Beardsley said. "The secondary goal of this project is to minimize impacts to passengers and airport operations while constructing these improvements."
Beardsley said a strategic phasing plan will be developed that focuses on the safe movement of passengers within the terminal and clearly identifies staging areas on the airfield side.
He said all work associated with this project is AIP eligible and will not permanently impact existing aircraft movement areas.
Sen. Flynn said the investment is part of a larger initiative by the Shapiro Administration to improve airport infrastructure across the Commonwealth.
"This funding marks a long-term investment in the future of Northeastern Pennsylvania," said Sen. Flynn. "As demand for air travel and commerce in our region continues to rise, it's essential that our infrastructure keeps pace. These upgrades will ensure our airport remains a modern, accessible, and secure gateway for residents, businesses and visitors alike."
Sen. Flynn said the project will be financed through the state Capital Budget via the Aviation Transportation Assistance Program, which is supported by bonds. Once completed, the upgrades will improve passenger flow, enhance security operations, and support continued growth at one of northeastern Pennsylvania's busiest airports.
According to PennDOT, Pennsylvania's robust aviation industry employs more than 226,000 people, provides nearly $12.5 billion in payroll and employment benefits, and has a $34 billion annual economic impact.
In addition to providing travel options, airports also facilitate services such as air cargo and freight, police and law enforcement, emergency medical services, firefighting and disaster and emergency response.
"Pennsylvania's aviation industry provides good-paying jobs while linking communities to a larger transportation system that moves goods and people around the world," said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. "These investments are another example of Governor Shapiro's focus on maintaining our infrastructure while also expanding business opportunities."
—Other airports receiving funding:
Bucks County
Quakertown Airport — $1.1 million to construct three new hangars.
Doylestown Airport — $525,000 for the continued rehabilitation of hangars.
Doylestown Airport — $157,500 to demolish four structures on airport property.
Doylestown Airport — $360,000 to extend public water access to the terminal area of the airport.
Jefferson County
DuBois Regional Airport — $225,000 for the continued renovations of their administration building.
Lehigh County
Lehigh Valley International Airport — $1.5 million to construct a parking structure to enhance terminal commercial development.
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Palantir Stock Soars 69% Year to Date: Time to Hold or Chase?
Palantir Stock Soars 69% Year to Date: Time to Hold or Chase?

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Palantir Stock Soars 69% Year to Date: Time to Hold or Chase?

Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR has surged 69% year to date, eclipsing the industry's modest 13% average and outshining heavyweights like Nvidia NVDA and Oracle ORCL. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Nvidia, a leading force in AI and graphics processing technology, has recorded a 6% gain so far this year. Similarly, Oracle, renowned for its enterprise software and cloud infrastructure services, has gained 5% year to date. In a macroeconomic landscape that has left many tech giants limping, Palantir's relentless rally stands out, but does this pace leave any meaningful upside for new investors? While Nvidia continues wrestling with cyclical demand and Oracle faces pressure on its cloud transition pace, Palantir is thriving by doubling down on artificial intelligence and data-centric enterprise software. The key question now: Is this AI darling still a buy, or has the market already priced in perfection? The backbone of Palantir's recent success is its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which is rapidly transforming into the company's biggest commercial catalyst. U.S. commercial revenues skyrocketed 71% year over year and 19% sequentially in the first quarter of 2025, pushing the annual run rate past the $1 billion mark for the first time. Total contract value in this segment skyrocketed 239% YoY, with deal sizes proliferating, more than double the number of $1 million contracts closed compared to last year. The rising popularity of AIP bootcamps — short, targeted training sessions for enterprise AI deployment — is a major driver. These bootcamps reduce implementation timelines and showcase AIP's plug-and-play value, helping customers scale AI operations faster than ever. Palantir's flexible, modular sales model allows clients to start small with specific components, further lowering adoption friction. Combined with usage-based pricing, this strategy has broadened Palantir's reach in the U.S. commercial sector, making AI integration more accessible and scalable for new clients. As of March 31, 2025, Palantir boasted $5.4 billion in cash and no debt. This fortress balance sheet gives the company strategic flexibility to reinvest in growth without external financing pressures. Revenue growth remains robust—first quarter sales soared 39.3% YoY. Deal momentum is equally encouraging with Palantir closing 139 deals of at least $1 million, 51 deals of at least $5 million and 31 deals of at least $10 million in the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2025 EPS stands at 14 cents, up 55.6% from a year ago. Full-year earnings are projected to grow 44% in 2025 and 25% in 2026. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Sales estimates are equally bullish, with 38% expected growth in the second quarter and full-year top-line increases of 37% and 28% for 2025 and 2026, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Despite its strong fundamentals, PLTR's valuation is hard to ignore. Its forward P/E ratio of 197 dwarfs the industry average of 40. This lofty premium reflects high expectations around future AI monetization and government contracts. While the growth story is compelling, the stock is priced for near-flawless execution, leaving minimal margin for error. Such a valuation exposes the stock to heightened volatility, especially if earnings or guidance falter in any quarter. Investors must weigh long-term promise against short-term risk. Palantir is proving itself as a real contender in AI-powered enterprise solutions. It has the momentum, the product-market fit, and the financial strength to keep growing. But the current price likely already reflects much of this optimism. While long-term investors should hold onto their positions, chasing the stock at these levels could prove risky. A better entry point may emerge after a pullback and valuation reset. PLTR currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Oracle Corporation (ORCL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Is Palantir Still a Buy After Its Run-Up? 3 Analysts From The Motley Fool Weigh In.
Is Palantir Still a Buy After Its Run-Up? 3 Analysts From The Motley Fool Weigh In.

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Is Palantir Still a Buy After Its Run-Up? 3 Analysts From The Motley Fool Weigh In.

Palantir's optimism and valuation are reminiscent of a bubble from years past. High valuation metrics don't tell the full story of every stock. An analysis of the analytics stock makes owning Palantir difficult to justify. 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies › One of the fastest-growing stocks in artificial intelligence (AI) over the last year is Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR). Its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) brought eye-popping productivity gains to its customers. Investors took notice, as the stock is up by 420% over the last year. Unfortunately for investors who have recently taken an interest, its forward P/E ratio is 205, and it sells for 96 times sales. Knowing that, three analysts from The Motley Fool have weighed in to determine whether its stock is still worth buying at these levels. Justin Pope: Separating noise from signal is arguably the most challenging aspect of investing. For Palantir, the noise is a red-hot stock price. Shares of Palantir have risen a mind-melting 1,770% since 2023. In other words, buying the stock up to this point has looked like a genius move. Anyone seeing this, especially on social media, where people aren't always humble, might feel tempted to jump into the stock. But here is the signal. The stock is rising faster than Palantir's underlying business has grown. Don't get me wrong, I think Palantir is an excellent AI stock, and the company is executing at a high level, particularly since launching AIP two years ago. It can make a stock appear invincible when prices only go up. However, investors have seen this movie before. Cisco Systems ran to wildly excessive valuations during the infamous dot-com bubble in the late 1990s. It lost most of its value when the bubble burst, and still hasn't revisited its all-time high, a whopping 25 years later. That doesn't mean that Palantir will suffer the same fate, but check this out. Cisco's P/E ratio peaked at approximately 234, and its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio peaked at around 39. Palantir is even more expensive today than Cisco at its peak. At the very least, it's hard to imagine much more rational upside in Palantir from these levels. Even worse, any market downturn or misfire in Palantir's business could pop that valuation bubble. Investors should tread very carefully around Palantir stock these days. Jake Lerch: Here's a sentiment that I often hear: "I love the stock, but it's too late to buy it now." And while there's nothing wrong with this viewpoint in theory, I've seen it disproven too many times in practice to grant it much weight. Take Amazon, for example. For years, countless analysts pointed out -- for good reason -- that Amazon's valuation was sky-high. From 1997 through 2000, Amazon's average P/S ratio was around 16. Moreover, the company had no profits -- and therefore no P/E ratio -- until 2003. Once it was making money, Amazon's average P/E ratio over its first five years of profitability was an eye-popping 88. Yet, investors who bought Amazon -- and held until today -- would be very happy with the results. In fact, $10,000 invested in the stock in 2008 would be worth about $800,000 today. This is all to point out that valuation isn't everything. Yes, Palantir is an expensive stock by just about any measure. Its current P/S and P/E ratios are significantly higher than the historical averages I cited for Amazon. However, that's because Palantir is poised to deliver enormous growth over the next decade or more. The company offers a unique value proposition that appeals to almost every organization. It can deliver efficiency gains for government agencies; it can cut costs for commercial clients. It can even help military and intelligence agencies win wars and prevent terrorist attacks. Simply put, there's very little this company can't do. Lastly, the nature of AI and data analysis means that Palantir is positioned to benefit from significant network effects and economies of scale as its AI systems improve and the company's overall client list grows. On top of that, its revenue is already growing at a year-over-year rate of 39%, and profits are increasing, as is free cash flow. That's what gives me confidence to believe it's not too late to buy Palantir stock. Will Healy: When it comes to AI living up to its potential, perhaps no stock outshines Palantir. The company began in 2003 and utilizes AI and machine learning as a national security-focused tool. However, it was only when Palantir began to benefit from AIP's massive productivity gains that its popularity took off. Anduril Industries had a 200-fold efficiency gain in its ability to respond to supply shortages. A global insurer reduced an underwriting workflow from two weeks to three hours. With results like that, it is little wonder its commercial customer count is up fivefold over the past three years. Such gains undoubtedly played a role in the aforementioned stock price growth, but regrettably for Palantir bulls, the increases likely do not justify the software-as-a-service (SaaS) stock's valuation, and here's why. In Q1, revenue of $884 million rose 39% compared to year-ago levels. With that growth, its net income of $214 million surged 103% higher over the same period. Unfortunately, triple-digit growth is not sustainable for even the best of companies, and the current valuation likely prices it for perfection. That "perfection" is likely not in the cards for Palantir. Analysts forecast revenue growth will slow to 36% for 2025 before falling to 29% in 2026. That is likely to do little to make the 96 P/S ratio more attractive, particularly when the larger and faster-growing Nvidia sells for 24 times sales. Indeed, Palantir is likely to play a key role in the AI field for years to come. Nonetheless, valuation matters at some point, and investors could find themselves stuck in a losing stock for years to come if the sentiment around the stock starts to turn negative. Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jake Lerch has positions in Amazon and Nvidia. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Cisco Systems, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Palantir Still a Buy After Its Run-Up? 3 Analysts From The Motley Fool Weigh In. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data

TeleTracking and Palantir partner for operational decision-making in healthcare
TeleTracking and Palantir partner for operational decision-making in healthcare

Yahoo

time6 hours ago

  • Yahoo

TeleTracking and Palantir partner for operational decision-making in healthcare

TeleTracking Technologies has collaborated with Palantir Technologies to enhance operational decision-making in healthcare. This strategic partnership is set to offer long-term value to healthcare providers worldwide by integrating TeleTracking's Operations IQ platform with the analytics and Palantir's AI-driven operating system, Palantir Foundry and AIP. Combining the operational workflow expertise of TeleTracking with the decision intelligence capabilities of Palantir, the partnership will enable caregivers to integrate and analyse various data types. This includes clinical, operational, financial, workforce, and third-party information. The goal is to use predictive forecasting and demand modelling to manage capacity, staffing, and resources more efficiently. The partnership will facilitate transparency and almost instantaneous awareness of circumstances across different areas or systems, leading to the optimisation of crucial resources throughout the entire organisation. It will also enhance the movement of patients through operational command centres. The distinctive operational information provided by TeleTracking, together with the AI-native platform from Palantir, seeks to automate operational procedures, lessening the load on staff and caregivers while also enhancing patient care and financial results. Palantir CEO Alex Karp said: 'This partnership with TeleTracking represents the AI revolution in healthcare we are in the midst of, where we continue to move closer to a world where all hospitals and health systems are embracing, implementing, and operating with an AI-powered approach, helping to streamline operations allowing for increased focus on providing the best level of care.' Health systems, regardless of their sizes, benefit from improved operational coordination, multi-hospital system management, and strategic planning powered by data. The partnership is designed to tailor their response capability to changing patient requirements and help to achieve cost efficiency. Earlier this year, TeleTracking announced a five-year collaboration with European applied AI company Faculty. This partnership aims to bring AI-powered automation and predictive capabilities to health systems and hospitals. "TeleTracking and Palantir partner for operational decision-making in healthcare" was originally created and published by Hospital Management, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store