Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $4.50 to $20.00. The stock had previously closed at $17.47, but opened at $18.44. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Planet Labs PBC shares last traded at $18.1260, with a volume of 8,455,444 shares traded.

PL has been the subject of several other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Planet Labs PBC from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Planet Labs PBC from $16.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Planet Labs PBC in a report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price objective on the stock. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Planet Labs PBC from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Planet Labs PBC from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Planet Labs PBC currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Robert H. Schingler sold 81,656 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.50, for a total value of $1,265,668.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,288,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,977,066.50. This represents a 5.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Planet Labs PBC

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Planet Labs PBC by 9.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,551,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $240,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,880 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Planet Labs PBC by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,820,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,704,000 after purchasing an additional 20,400 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Planet Labs PBC by 758.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,727,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,386,000 after buying an additional 3,293,333 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Planet Labs PBC by 51.1% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,705,913 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,103,000 after buying an additional 1,252,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Planet Labs PBC by 265.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,450,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,787,000 after buying an additional 2,506,595 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.71% of the company’s stock.

Planet Labs PBC Trading Up 4.5%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $13.12 and a 200 day moving average of $9.27. The firm has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -43.45 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a current ratio of 4.00, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 10th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $81.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.02 million. Planet Labs PBC had a negative return on equity of 31.01% and a negative net margin of 45.87%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Planet Labs PBC will post -0.37 EPS for the current year.

Planet Labs PBC Company Profile

Planet Labs PBC engages in the design, construction, and launch constellations of satellites with the intent of providing high cadence geospatial data delivered to customers through an online platform worldwide. The company’s platform offers planet monitoring, basemap, tasking, apps, and application programming interfaces, as well as analytics and planetary variables.