Planet Labs (NYSE: PL) just delivered the kind of quarter that makes even jaded space investors sit up straighter, with revenue blasting past expectations and guidance pointing to a company finally acting like a real business instead of a science project in orbit. Wall Street rewarded the performance in kind, sending the stock sharply higher as management outlined a path to profitable growth, powered by satellites, software and a suddenly very full backlog.
A quarter that escaped gravity
For the three months ended October 31, Planet’s revenue climbed roughly one-third year over year to about 81 million dollars, comfortably ahead of analyst estimates that had hovered in the low 70s. The upside flowed straight through to profitability metrics, with adjusted EBITDA landing in positive territory again, marking the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA profit and putting some distance between Planet and its loss-making past.
While headline growth grabbed attention, the more telling figure was the company’s backlog and remaining performance obligations, which ballooned by well over 200%, signaling that this is not a one-and-done print but a business increasingly booked out into the future. In practical terms, Planet has gone from selling pretty satellite pictures to selling multi-year, data-heavy contracts that governments and enterprises now appear reluctant to live without.
Turning pixels into profit
Under the hood, Planet’s non-GAAP gross margins remained healthy, landing around the high-50s to 60% range even as the company leaned into capital-intensive satellite services and AI-enabled contracts. That combination—capital heavy in orbit, asset-light on the ground—has begun to show operating leverage, with cash flow and adjusted profitability improving faster than the raw income statement would suggest.
The real punchline is that breakeven on an adjusted EPS basis arrived ahead of expectations, flipping a forecast loss into a zero line that equity analysts love almost as much as they love a clean DCF model. For a small-cap space name that once traded like a speculative moonshot, Planet is starting to look uncomfortably like a normal software-and-services company—just one that happens to commute to work at a few hundred kilometers up.
Defense, data and demand
Much of the growth is coming from defense and intelligence customers, where revenue surged, reflecting rising demand for persistent Earth observation in a world that seems to generate new geopolitical flashpoints faster than new Netflix (NFLX) shows. That government-heavy mix is being supplemented by commercial wins in agriculture, energy and mapping, where AI-enhanced analytics turn daily imagery into subscription data products rather than one-off images.
Net dollar retention north of 100% underscores that existing customers are not merely renewing but expanding their spend, suggesting that once Planet’s data gets woven into a workflow, budgets adjust around it rather than the other way around. In Wall Street-speak, the company is migrating from “nice-to-have visualization” to “must-have input variable,” which is how satellite photos evolve into something that resembles a recurring revenue annuity.
Guidance that sounds terrestrial
Management did not stop at a strong print; it raised its full-year fiscal 2026 revenue outlook to just under 300 million dollars and guided to a modest adjusted EBITDA profit for the year. The fourth-quarter revenue forecast in the high-70 million range implies growth closer to the high-20s percent, a deceleration from Q3’s pace but still comfortably ahead of many software and data peers that do not have to launch their infrastructure atop rockets.
Capital expenditures remain substantial, with tens of millions earmarked each quarter for new satellites, ground systems and capitalized software, but the spending now looks more like growth capex for a scaling platform than survival spending for a cash-burning startup. With nearly 700 million dollars in cash and equivalents on the balance sheet after a sizable convertible debt raise, Planet has given itself enough financial runway to miss a launch window or two without spooking bondholders.
A stock reaching escape velocity
Investors noticed. Shares of Planet (PL) surged sharply—by double digits on the day—after the earnings release, extending a rally that has already seen the stock multiply several-fold year to date as the market rediscovered enthusiasm for space-adjacent growth stories with tangible cash flows. In an asset class still littered with pre-revenue dreams, a company delivering 30%-plus top-line growth, expanding backlog and a credible road to profitability tends to stand out like a bright object against the dark sky.
Of course, even satellites are not immune to gravity: rising capital costs, competitive constellations and the cyclicality of government budgets all loom on the horizon. For now, though, Planet has earned the right to enjoy its moment, orbiting above many of its space-economy peers—and, in a twist rarely seen in this corner of the market, doing so with a business model that has finally discovered the up-and-to-the-right trajectory that Wall Street likes best.
Sources
[1] This Space Stock Is up 500%. Did You Miss Your Opportunity? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/space-stock-500-did-miss-174633258.html
[2] Planet Reports Financial Results for Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251210070707/en/Planet-Reports-Financial-Results-for-Third-Quarter-of-Fiscal-Year-2026
[3] Planet Labs beats Q3 estimates as revenue jumps 33%, shares surge 9% https://www.investing.com/news/earnings/planet-labs-beats-q3-estimates-as-revenue-jumps-33-shares-surge-9-93CH-4401765
[4] Planet Labs Q3 FY26 slides: Revenue jumps 33%, backlog triples as satellite firm turns profitable https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/planet-labs-q3-fy26-slides-revenue-jumps-33-backlog-triples-as-satellite-firm-turns-profitable-93CH-4402082
[5] Earnings call transcript: Planet Labs Q3 2025 beats revenue forecast https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-planet-labs-q3-2025-beats-revenue-forecast-93CH-4402060
[6] Planet Reports Financial Results for Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planet-reports-financial-results-third-210500955.html
[7] Planet Labs PBC (PL) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue Growth and Strategic … https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planet-labs-pbc-pl-q3-050106771.html
[8] Why Planet Labs Stock Is Skyrocketing This Week https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-planet-labs-stock-skyrocketing-214545304.html
[9] Planet Labs PBC (PL) Reports Break-Even Earnings for Q3 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planet-labs-pbc-pl-reports-222002482.html
[10] Planet Labs surges on healthy Q3 earnings and optimistic revenue guidance (PL:NYSE) https://seekingalpha.com/news/4530383-planet-labs-surges-on-healthy-q3-earnings-and-optimistic-revenue-guidance
[11] Planet Labs outlines $297M–$301M FY26 revenue outlook while advancing AI and satellite services (NYSE:PL) https://seekingalpha.com/news/4530386-planet-labs-outlines-297m-301m-fy26-revenue-outlook-while-advancing-ai-and-satellite-services
[12] Planet Labs Stock Surges 18% On Significant Revenue Beat In Fiscal Q3 https://www.tikr.com/blog/planet-labs-nyse-pl-stock-surges-18-on-significant-revenue-beat-in-fiscal-q3
[13] Planet Labs PBC (PL) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue Growth and Strategic … https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planet-labs-pbc-pl-q2-070049210.html
[14] Why Planet Labs Stock Just Rocketed https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-planet-labs-stock-just-170002153.html
[15] Planet Labs Stock Jumps 25% — Q3 Smash and Explosive Revenue Outlook https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planet-labs-stock-jumps-25-171214246.html
[16] Planet Labs PBC Earnings Call Highlights Growth and Challenges https://www.tipranks.com/news/company-announcements/planet-labs-pbc-earnings-call-highlights-growth-and-challenges
[17] Planet Labs PBC (PL) Releases Q3 2026 Earnings: Revenue Beats … https://www.quiverquant.com/news/Planet+Labs+PBC+(PL)+Releases+Q3+2026+Earnings:+Revenue+Beats,+EPS+Miss;+Cash+Flow+Jumps,+Net+Loss+Widens
[18] Planet Labs Lifts FY 2026 Outlook as 2Q Loss Narrows, Revenue Tops Estimates https://www.marketwatch.com/story/planet-labs-lifts-fy-2026-outlook-as-2q-loss-narrows-revenue-tops-estimates-d94f27ec
[19] Planet Reports Financial Results for First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250604140394/en/Planet-Reports-Financial-Results-for-First-Quarter-of-Fiscal-Year-2026
[20] Planet Labs (PL) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/planet-labs-pl-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript
