Why Planet Labs Stock Crashed on Friday


Planet Labs continues to disappoint space investors.

Shares of Planet Labs (PL -12.97%) tumbled 15% through 11:35 a.m. ET Friday after the company reported last night that it had missed earnings forecasts.

Heading into the report, Wall Street analysts forecast the Earth observation space stock would lose $0.02 per share in the fiscal 2025 fourth quarter on $61.9 million in sales. Instead, the company reported a loss of $0.08 per share, and sales of only $61.6 million.

Planet Labs’ Q4 earnings

The news gets worse. Sales growth for the quarter was only 5% year over year. Also, the $0.08 loss was only an adjusted number. When calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the company actually lost $0.12 per share, with $0.06 of the loss coming from what it called “impact from the change in fair value of warrant liabilities.”

For the full-year fiscal 2025, sales grew 11% to $244.4 million, and losses amounted to $0.42 per share.

On the good news side, sales did grow some, and the gross profit margin on those sales continues to inch higher, reaching 57% for the full year, and topping 62% in the fourth quarter in particular.

The company tried to soften the blow from the poor earnings report this morning, announcing it has won a subcontract on a $95 million California Air Resources Board deal awarded to Carbon Mapper. Planet Labs did not say, however, how much of the $95 million will filter down from Carbon Mapper. Also, the contract is described as multiyear, so the annual revenue will certainly be less than $95 million.

Is Planet Labs stock a sell?

It was pretty much bad news all around. Management also said that its fiscal 2026 first-quarter revenue will be only $62 million, below Wall Street forecasts. And its full-year fiscal 2026 revenue will range from $260 million to $280 million — which, at the midpoint, is slightly below Wall Street’s expected $272 million.

The company did not give earnings guidance, but it seems safe to assume those earnings numbers will miss as well. Planet Labs is probably a sell at this point.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.



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