Another day, another poor performance from Planet Labs (PL 3.54%). Last night, the space stock that operates the world's largest constellation of Earth observation satellites announced financial results for its fiscal second quarter of 2025 -- and the news wasn't great.
Planet Labs said it lost $0.06 per share in the quarter, on sales of $61.1 million. And granted, these results were basically in line with what analysts had predicted -- $0.06 in losses on $61.8 million in sales. But investors are disappointed regardless, and they're selling off Planet Labs stock by 21% through 10:30 a.m. ET this morning.
NYSE: PL
Key Data Points
Planet Labs Q2 earnings
Planet Labs' Q2 numbers weren't horrible, exactly. Sales grew less than Wall Street wanted, but did grow 14% year over year in the period ended July 31. Gross profit margin according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) grew to 53%, and non-GAAP margin rose to 58%. The problem is, all these numbers are far below what Planet Labs was promising back when it was trying to sell itself to investors as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPO: sales growth averaging 44% per year, and non-GAAP gross margin a gigantic 74%.
Simply put, Planet Labs isn't living up to anything near what it originally promised back in 2021.
Is Planet Labs stock a sell?
But it's trying. As CEO Will Marshall pointed out in the report, Its shift to emphasize defense and intelligence sales helped lift revenue on that side of the business over 30% year over year -- still a lot less than 44%, but at least better than 14%.
Similarly, management is promising non-GAAP gross margin growth to at least 59% next quarter, and perhaps as much as 61%. (Hey, it's not 74%, but it's progress.) And Planet Labs says revenue will continue to grow sequentially, to somewhere between $61 million and $64 million in fiscal Q3.
The problem is that analysts were hoping Planet Labs might hit at least $64.2 million, which is above even the top end of the company's sales guidance. And so in the final analysis, investors are looking at guidance and seeing not improvement, but rather Planet Labs simply missing forecasts... again.
No wonder investors feel glum.
