Can Planet Labs Turn Backlog Visibility Into Sustained Momentum?
Planet Labs PBC PL is entering the second half of fiscal 2027 with strong revenue visibility, buoyed by a growing backlog and expanding satellite services opportunity.
The company had a backlog of approximately $815 million, up about 11% year over year at the end of the fiscal second quarter. Roughly 50% of the backlog applies to the next 12 months and 70% to the next 24 months. Remaining performance obligations (“RPO”) totaled approximately $753 million, up 9% year over year.
Management estimates that executing contracts already in backlog could generate more than $400 million in revenues over the next four quarters, excluding new business and renewals. The company added that it is confident of sustaining “high growth rates in future years” supported by near-term visibility and pipeline strength.
This visibility is important as Planet Labs ramps up its satellite services business. On the lastearnings call management added that it had identified more than $4 billion in satellite-services opportunities, with over 25% qualified as near term.
Planet Labs PBC Revenue (Quarterly)
Planet Labs PBC revenue-quarterly | Planet Labs PBC Quote
Fiscal second-quarter revenues surged 58% year over year to $116 million. Defense and Intelligence revenues (including satellite services revenues) rose more than 90% year over year, while commercial and civil-government revenues increased over 15% and 5%, respectively.
The handover of the Pelican satellite to the Swedish Armed Forces supported top-line growth. In August, the company was awarded a satellite services tender by Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior, making the country the first civil government to procure Planet Labs’ dedicated Constellation Services. The tender includes options and has a maximum possible value of €25 million over five years.
Planet Labs is also expanding capacity to support this opportunity. The company recently opened its Berlin manufacturing facility, which is expected to produce Pelican satellites and eventually scale to as many as 60 satellites per year.
Nonetheless, the key challenge will be to translate this visibility into consistent growth. Increasing capex will be a factor to watch out for amid increasing competition in this space. Fiscal 2027 capex is expected at $100-$115 million.
Mapping the Competitive Terrain
BlackSky Technology BKSY is a provider of real-time geospatial intelligence and global monitoring services. On the lastearnings call the company noted that it had secured up to $200 million in bookings year-to-date, while multi-year international contracts for space-based intelligence subscriptions represented more than 80% of total funded backlog.
Increasing adoption of Gen-3 services and expansion with existing customers is expected to sustain the momentum. BlackSky has a pipeline of more than 20 Gen-3 satellites underway and is on track to have eight Gen-3 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. The company is on track for an on-time delivery of its first sovereign Gen-3 satellite in 2026. BlackSky recently announced that it “collected and processed first-light imagery” from its fifth Gen-3 satellite in less than 20 hours after liftoff, underscoring rapid commissioning capabilities.
Satellogic SATL is a vertically integrated Earth-observation and geospatial intelligence company. The company ended the second quarter of 2026 with $80.7 million in contracted non-cancellable RPO, including $45.8 million expected to be realized within the next 12 months. The broader Space Systems pipeline remains around $1 billion.
Strong global sovereign demand is creating a durable tailwind. In the last reported quarter, Satellogic’s Space Systems delivered $8.8 million in revenues (comprising 55% of total revenues) driven by sovereign satellite deliveries. Increasing subscriptions for persistent monitoring is another growth factor. Satellogic is also ramping production for its Merlin, NewSat and NextGen programs as defense demand grows.
PL Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Shares of Planet Labs have lost 21.6% over the past month against the Satellite and Communication industry’s growth of 3.4%.
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Planet Labs’ shares are trading at a forward 12-month price-to-sales multiple of 11.69X, higher than the industry’s ratio of 2.9X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PL’s earnings for fiscal 2027 has been revised upward over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
PL currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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