Planet Labs PBC reports Q1 results on June 4 carrying one of the more charged setups in the satellite data space: a 46% surge over the past month, short sellers rebuilding positions in real time, and analysts struggling to keep their targets anywhere near the current price.
The rally has outrun the Street decisively. The stock closed at $51.14 — well above every published price target in ORTEX data. Wedbush, one of the most recently updated voices, lifted its target to $50 in mid-May. Goldman Sachs is at $20, Morgan Stanley at $35, and Citi at $35. Every major firm that moved since March raised its target, but none got close to where the stock is now trading. That gap isn't a valuation curiosity — it's the central tension heading into the print. The consensus is technically a sell, with one registered sell-side position against a cluster of buys and neutrals, and a mean target implying roughly 30% downside from current levels.
Short sellers have taken notice. SI has climbed 11% over the past week to 12.1% of the free float — a meaningful level for a name this size — and is up sharply from the April trough near 40.9 million shares. The month-on-month picture actually shows improvement (SI is down 15% from late April highs), suggesting some short covering accompanied the rally before the most recent rebuilding. Borrow conditions remain permissive: cost to borrow is just 0.45% and availability is ample at 213%, meaning the lending pool is far from stressed. Short sellers can add to positions freely — and they appear to be doing so.
Options positioning tells a calmer story. The put/call ratio is 0.40, just barely above its 20-day average and nowhere near the defensive extremes seen in late April, when it briefly spiked above 0.70. Call-heavy positioning has dominated recent weeks, consistent with a market leaning into the momentum rather than hedging against it. The ORTEX short score of 60.6 sits in moderate territory — elevated enough to flag, not extreme enough to signal an imminent squeeze.
The bull case rests on Planet Labs' expanding defence footprint. The recent nine-figure Swedish Armed Forces contract is the latest evidence that sovereign governments are willing to pay for daily satellite imagery at scale. Bulls point to the maturing AI commercial flywheel, multi-year high-value contracts, and a backlog that supports long-term growth. Bears counter that profitability remains distant — the P/E is deeply negative, EV/EBITDA well above 600x, and return on assets sits at minus 6.4%. Insiders sold material amounts in early April, with the CEO and CFO each offloading shares at prices between $34 and $35 — well below where the stock trades now, though that could simply reflect pre-planned selling programmes rather than conviction.
The June 4 print will test whether Planet Labs' revenue trajectory and contract momentum can justify a valuation that the Street, en masse, has yet to endorse — and whether the short sellers rebuilding positions ahead of earnings are early or right on time.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open PL on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
