Earnings call transcript: Planet Labs beats Q1 2027 forecasts with record revenue

Planet Labs PBC (PL) reported its strongest quarterly performance to date for Q1 fiscal 2027, surpassing both earnings and revenue forecasts. The company posted an EPS of -$0.03, exceeding expectations by 25%, and achieved a record revenue of $94.2 million, a 42% year-over-year increase. Following the earnings announcement, Planet Labs’ stock price rose 0.37% in aftermarket trading.

Planet Labs demonstrated robust performance in Q1 fiscal 2027, with revenue growth driven by strong demand for its satellite services and AI-enabled solutions. The company’s strategic investments in new technologies and partnerships have positioned it well within the competitive landscape, particularly in the defense and intelligence sectors. Year-over-year revenue growth was notably strong in the EMEA region, reflecting heightened geopolitical demand for space-based capabilities.

The strong performance has propelled the stock to remarkable gains, with a 991% return over the past year, pushing the company’s market capitalization to $15.37 billion. Yet InvestingPro data suggests the stock is currently overvalued relative to its Fair Value estimate, placing it among the most overvalued stocks tracked by the platform.

• Gross profit margin (last twelve months): 56.15%, reflecting the company’s impressive pricing power.

• Current ratio: 1.65, indicating solid short-term liquidity.

Planet Labs reported an EPS of -$0.03, surpassing the forecast of -$0.04, resulting in a 25% positive earnings surprise. Revenue of $94.2 million exceeded expectations by 4.67%, marking another quarter of outperformance.

Following the earnings report, Planet Labs’ stock rose by 0.37% in aftermarket trading, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s strong financial performance and strategic initiatives. The stock’s movement aligns with its recent trajectory, supported by record revenue and positive earnings surprises. The current price of $43.53 represents an extraordinary climb from the 52-week low of $4.90, though the stock declined 15.31% over the past week.

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For Q2 fiscal 2027, Planet Labs projects revenue between $102 million and $107 million, representing approximately 42% growth at the midpoint. The company anticipates a non-GAAP gross margin of 52% to 55%, with adjusted EBITDA ranging from breakeven to $5 million, as it continues to invest in growth opportunities.

Will Marshall, CEO of Planet Labs, noted, "Our record revenue and strong backlog underscore the demand for our unique offerings in the satellite and AI markets. We remain committed to advancing our technology and expanding our market reach."

During the earnings call, analysts focused on the company’s future growth drivers and potential impacts of geopolitical tensions on demand. Management highlighted its strategic initiatives and robust pipeline, emphasizing the importance of innovation and operational efficiency in maintaining competitive advantages.

Operator: Thank you for joining us, welcome to the Planet Labs PBC first quarter of fiscal 2027 earnings call. After today’s prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Cleo Palmer-Poroner, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Cleo Palmer-Poroner, Director of Investor Relations, Planet Labs PBC: Thanks, operator, and hello everyone. Welcome to Planet’s first quarter of fiscal year 2027 earnings call. I’m joined by Will Marshall and Ashley Johnson, who will provide a recap of our results and discuss our current outlook. We encourage everyone to please reference the earnings press release and earnings update presentation for today’s call, which are available on our investor relations website. Before we begin, we’d like to remind everyone that we will make forward-looking statements related to future events or our financial outlook. Any forward-looking statements are based on management’s current outlook plans, estimates, expectations, and projections. The inclusion of such forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by Planet that future plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and assumptions as detailed in our SEC filings, which can be found at www.sec.gov.

Our actual results or performance may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. We undertake no responsibility to update such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. During the call, we will also discuss historic and forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. We believe that these measures provide useful information about operating results, enhance the overall understanding of past financial performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. For more information on the non-GAAP financial measures, please see the reconciliation tables provided in our press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website at investors.planet.com.

Further, throughout this call, we provide a number of key performance indicators used by management and often used by competitors in our industry. These and other key performance indicators are discussed in more detail in our press release and earnings update presentation, which are intended to accompany our prepared remarks. At this point, I’d now like to turn the call over to Will Marshall, Planet’s CEO, Chairperson, and Co-Founder. Over to you, Will.

Cleo Palmer-Poroner, Director of Investor Relations, Planet Labs PBC3: Thanks, Cleo. Welcome everyone joining us today. Planet had another excellent quarter, delivering record revenue and signing an eight-figure deal with an international customer. We also successfully launched three additional Pelican satellites, including one for Sweden, their first sovereign reconnaissance satellites just four months after contract signing. To briefly summarize the results, we generated a record $94 million in revenue, representing approximately 42% year-over-year growth. Non-GAAP gross margin was 56% for the quarter. For the third sequential quarter, we achieved Rule of 40, which is our revenue growth rate plus adjusted EBITDA margin. End-of-period backlog was approximately $906 million, equating to approximately 72% growth year-on-year. Defense and intelligence continues to be an area of strength for us, underpinned by the geopolitical backdrop. First quarter DNI revenue grew over 65% year-on-year, driven by strong performance in our data subscription solutions and satellite services.

I’d like to highlight a few recent customer wins with the U.S. government. We were awarded a six-month, $7.5 million contract renewal by the U.S. Navy for vessel detection and monitoring over key areas of interest throughout the Pacific. As we announced earlier today, the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the NGA, awarded Planet a $21.9 million one-year contract extension for maritime surveillance under the Luno B IDIQ for advanced analytics for maritime operations and reconnaissance. We also received a new award from the NGA for our global monitoring service to support crisis response. These awards reinforce the U.S. government’s commitment to integrating commercial AI-enabled geospatial intelligence into its national security architectures. They underscore our position as a vital partner for customers seeking persistent monitoring to accelerate critical decision-making in a complex arena. We’re very proud to have received these awards and eager to deliver for this critical customer.

We also continue to see robust international government demand driven by the aforementioned geopolitics. Nations are articulating an urgent imperative to secure sovereign access to space, understand threats in their region, modernize their defense capabilities, and maintain their strategic edge. For example, we signed a new dedicated capacity deal with an international defense and intelligence customer. This eight-figure one-year contract will give the customer immediate access to dedicated capacity from our satellites in orbit, as well as advanced analytical solutions integrated across our Pelican, SkySat, and PlanetScope constellations. Also, we’re making excellent progress executing against our previously announced satellite services deals. To highlight one prominent example, last month, we successfully launched the first Pelican for the Swedish Armed Forces. Critically, the launch occurred just four months after we were awarded the contract.

Members of the Swedish delegation attended the launch at Vandenberg. They expressed their excitement and national pride in launching Sweden’s first ever sovereign reconnaissance satellite. We’re incredibly proud to have delivered it for them and look forward to what we hope is a long and fruitful partnership. We’re continuing to focus on execution and delivery for our international customers across the board. We believe our ability to ramp them quickly and address their most urgent needs, whether through immediate dedicated capacity or speedy launch to orbit, continues to be a key differentiator for us. With our reliable trac