Planet Labs holds an unmatched Earth-observation data asset for defense and commercial customers. x.comÂ
Burak Finance
Head of Analytics, Growth Investor, PLTR/NBIS/RKLB
Planet Labs is very attractive at a $7B market cap, and its data is the moat. x.com x.comÂ
Planet Labs should go back to at least $50 because its drop on a $1.5B ATM, about 12% of market cap, was an overreaction given its market position and strong financials. It runs the largest commercial Earth-observation fleet, imaging all land daily, with a 10-year-plus archive rivals cannot recreate, sold via 99% recurring subscriptions and sovereign deals. Revenue grows 41%, backlog is $906M, up 72%, and it is disrupting Airbus's dominance, on track to lead space imagery. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Planet Labs should offer immense value as the number one player with the best network, but management keeps failing to unlock it. As a public benefit corporation, it is not permitted some forms of monetization. It needs to get its act together and focus on revenue, and with no visibility on when or if that happens, caution is warranted. x.comÂ
Planet Labs is emerging as a space-based constellation manager, not just a LEO satellite data provider, yet its valuation doesn't reflect that. Google and Planet launched a prototype satellite carrying four TPUs on SpaceX's Transporter-18, the first step of Google's Project Suncatcher to test machine learning infrastructure in space. Orbital compute may arrive sooner than the 2030s, though Planet remains a speculative position. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Planet Labs holding its gains in a psychotic market is remarkable, and it should go much higher once conditions normalize. It has delivered four monster earnings reports in a row and never broke its 10-week moving average. x.comÂ
Planet Labs is not yet a buy after its 24% drop because a newly announced $1.5 billion at-the-market offering hangs over every bounce. Filings will show how much is sold: light use of $100-200 million would limit the overhang, while aggressive early selling would mean more downside. The $28-30 zone, about 24x forward revenue on the new $433 million guide, is still rich but closer to fair for high-growth space and defense names, and a retest of $25 would be an excellent entry. x.comÂ
Planet Labs is gapping up to all-time highs on record revenue, backlog up 79% year over year and positive free cash flow. It is a later-stage gap after three straight quarterly gaps, but it could still be worth a try since gappers have been working. x.comÂ
Planet Labs has an excellent fundamental trend and is a long-term pick within the smaller-cap space theme, though it is less attractive than Rocket Lab on both fundamentals and technicals. The worst of the pain is likely done, even if more near-term shakeout comes. Rocket Lab tackles a much larger addressable market with near-flawless execution. x.com x.comÂ
Planet Labs' $1.5B at-the-market offering signals that its balance sheet needs the option, because management did not push back on the size. @spacanpanman notes the ATM equals 12.4% of Planet Labs' market cap, versus about 3.5% for Rocket Lab's $3B ATM, calling it too aggressive and an avoidable blunder. x.comÂ
Planet Labs is becoming a mission-critical defense asset as geopolitical competition drives demand for daily global monitoring, with defense and intelligence revenue up over 65% in Q1. It won a $10M+ NGA contract extension for maritime awareness and large sovereign imaging deals with the Czech government, Greece and Sweden's defense ministry. New high-resolution Pelican satellites with sub-minute revisit should lift revenue per user, and 99% of annual contract value is subscription-based. x.comÂ