Planet Labs: Options Traders Turn Cautious as Stock Drops 23% in a Month

Planet Labs PBC heads into December earnings with a sharp disconnect between Street optimism and what the market is actually doing: the stock has fallen 23% over the past month to $13.51, while analyst price targets sit near $30, and options traders have just turned the most defensively positioned they have been in almost a year.

The clearest signal this week is in options. Put demand has surged relative to calls, with the put/call ratio jumping to 0.44, almost three standard deviations above its 20-day mean of 0.28. That is the most defensive options reading in the past year, exceeded only by the 52-week high of 0.70. The move is particularly striking because for most of October the ratio was running below 0.28, so the shift in the last two sessions has been abrupt. It points to investors reaching for downside protection into the December 10 earnings date, six weeks out, rather than positioning for a bounce after a bruising month.

Short interest tells a less alarming story than the price action might suggest. At 12.6% of the free float, shorts are present and have built over the past month, up 21% over 30 days. But the week's direction has reversed slightly, down about 2% over the past five days, and the borrow market is nowhere near stressed. Availability is at 1,113%, meaning there are more than eleven shares available to borrow for every one already borrowed. That is well above the 52-week low of 136%, and cost to borrow has barely moved, holding near 0.52%. The lending market is not signalling a squeeze, and the short base, while elevated, is not at an extreme that would create forced covering pressure.

The Street remains constructively rated but is clearly recalibrating. Morgan Stanley's Kristine Liwag cut her price target from $35 to $19 on October 19, while keeping an Equal-Weight rating, the most consequential recent move from a bellwether firm. Barclays initiated at Equal-Weight with a $17 target on October 9. Both actions bracket the current price meaningfully above where the stock trades, but neither carries a Buy. The bull case rests on genuine growth: F2Q27 revenue of $116 million, up 58% year-on-year, a remaining performance obligation of $346 million, and three nine-figure satellite services contracts worth over $500 million combined. The bear case is the guidance miss that triggered the September sell-off. F3Q27 revenue guidance of $101 to $105 million fell 9% short of consensus, and adjusted EBITDA remains negative. The EV/EBITDA multiple at 103x reflects how much growth the market had already priced in, and the EPS momentum factor score of 3 out of 100 shows estimates are still moving the wrong way. The short score of 52 is in the middle of its range, neither extreme.

The ownership register adds one notable data point. CEO and co-founder William Marshall holds a Schedule 13D on file, an activist-category disclosure, covering 5.2% of shares as last reported in January 2026. That position was last officially reported at 12.5 million shares, though the institutional table shows it closer to 12.5 million. The insider trade history is dominated by pre-planned 10b5-1 sales. Three directors sold between September and mid-October, all under pre-arranged plans, as did the CFO and co-founder Robert Schingler. Net insider selling over 90 days amounts to roughly $5.1 million in value. These are scheduled sales, not discretionary signals, but the absence of any open-market buying from management while the stock dropped 23% in a month is worth registering. Alphabet remains the largest institutional holder at nearly 9.7% of shares, unchanged as of June 30, with no reported change.

The last earnings print on September 3 saw the stock fall 9.4% on the day and 16.5% over the following five days. That is the only clean reaction in the history data, but it sets a reference point for how the market treated the guidance disappointment. Closest peers BKSY and SPIR dropped 8.9% and 9.0% respectively on the week, so the recent pressure on Planet Labs is not entirely company-specific, though the month's 23% drawdown compares poorly with the group.

The December 10 print is the focal point. What to watch between now and then is whether the options market sustains this elevated put/call ratio or resets as the stock stabilises, and whether short interest continues its week-on-week drift downward or resumes its month-long build.