Stock Market Today, Sept. 4: Planet Labs Dips 1% Despite Earnings Beat, Full-Year Guidance Raise

Planet Labs PBC (PL -1.25%), a daily satellite imagery and geospatial analytics provider, closed at $18.11, down 1.28%. Shares slipped after mixed premarket analyst updates, following Thursday’s earnings beat and guidance raise. Trading volume reached 30.8M shares, coming in about 182% above its three-month average of 10.9M shares. Planet Labs PBC IPO’d in 2021 and has grown 83% since going public.

How the markets moved today

The S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.38%) fell 0.39% to 7,718, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.29%) slipped 0.29% to 26,507. Among aerospace & defense — satellite-based earth observation and geospatial analytics peers, BlackSky Technology (BKSY -0.63%) closed at $20.50, down 0.63%, while Satellogic (SATL +0.22%) ended at $4.64, up 0.22%, underscoring a mixed session for the group.

What this means for investors

It was an excellent Q2 for Planet Labs as sales rose 58% and the company delivered a surprise positive adjusted EPS of $0.02 — both above Wall Street’s expectations. However, the stock slid 1% on mixed analyst price target changes and subsequent evaluations today.

For the most part, Planet Labs’ earnings looked strong, but its backlog growth of just 11% year over year may have helped keep the stock largely flat today. Furthermore, the company guided for Q3 sales to land between $101 million and $105 million — well short of analysts’ expectations of $114 million. While this would equal 27% sales growth at the midpoint, it’d be a large step back from Q2’s outsize growth.

I’m not racing out to buy shares of PL stock at 17 times sales. However, I believe the company could build a moat around its historical data and insights, especially as it continues to incorporate AI into its processes and looks for newer, leading-edge applications for its customers.