There were no S&P 500 earnings reactions on Monday, but something happened yesterday that we need to discuss.
Kenny Glick over at Hit The Bid likes to say that all the cool kids are trading Space Rockets and robots. That’s the game right now, and Planet Labs $PL fits squarely in that trade.
This isn’t just another satellite company. They have built the largest constellation of Earth-observing satellites in history, with a mission to image the entire world every day.
Their technology makes global change visible and actionable. It delivers high-resolution datasets that governments, corporations, and NGOs can’t get anywhere else.
This is a company playing at the intersection of space, AI, and data infrastructure.
Their clients range from the U.S. Department of Defense and NATO to energy companies, insurers, and farmers.
Think about the total addressable market. It spans defense and intelligence, climate monitoring, global commerce, AI-driven analytics, agriculture, and insurance.
The upside is staggering - we’re talking about a future where sovereign governments demand daily, high-resolution images of their borders, insurers dynamically price risk with satellite feeds, and tech giants train AI models on Planet’s unmatched Earth dataset.
For investors, Planet Labs is no longer just a speculative “space play.” It's starting to put up numbers that prove the model works:
In Monday's report, Planet Labs' backlog surged 245% year-over-year to $736M, one of the fastest growth rates in the entire market. That’s because they’re landing massive, multi-year contracts with the German government, JSAT, NATO, and the U.S. military.
Revenue growth looks slower at just +20% year-over-year, but that’s the nature of their model. They book contracts that convert into revenue over time.
The real story is that the pipeline is exploding, and that future revenue is already locked in.
For the first time, Planet Labs is free cash flow positive:
In its latest report, Planet Labs generated $46M in free cash flow, with $54M year-to-date. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA turned positive to $6M, marking the third consecutive profitable quarter on that measure.
EPS remains negative, but fundamentally, the business has turned a corner. This is no longer just about potential - this company is proving it can generate real earnings while scaling a capital-intensive satellite fleet.
The market loves what they're doing:
Planet Labs' last earnings reaction on June 5 was its best reaction ever, as the stock surged over 49%. This quarter? The stock followed with its second-best earnings reaction in history, ripping 48% higher.
These historic back-to-back post-earnings moves are Mr. Market's way of telling us loud and clear that this company is doing something right.
Stocks don't react to earnings like this unless something game-changing is happening. Especially at a multi-billion dollar valuation...
Zooming out, it's clear that PL has plenty of room to run:
After years of carving out an accumulation pattern, Planet Labs has made a decisive upside resolution. Moreover, it did so with an earnings-fueled gap-n-go. It doesn't get much better than this...
The bulls are in complete control of this name, and we don't think that will change anytime soon.
So long as PL holds above 7.50, the path of least resistance is likely to remain higher for the foreseeable future.
Happy fishing
-The Beat Team
P.S. If you're looking for more stocks like Planet Labs, check out what Riley Rosebee is doing with Godspeed.
Published five days a week, Godspeed blends technical, fundamental, and behavioral analysis to help readers profit from mega trends. Riley covers AI’s impact on transportation, automation, defense, robotics, space, and consumer tech - not just as a concept, but as a capital cycle.
From space stocks to humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles, he tracks the companies defining tomorrow’s economy.
