Planet Labs PBC Stock (NYSE: PL) News Today, Dec. 19, 2025: PL Surges as Earnings Momentum, Backlog Growth, and Defense Deals Drive Fresh Forecasts

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) is ending the week back in the spotlight. In Friday trading (Dec. 19, 2025), PL stock surged to around $19.39, up roughly 11% on the day, after opening near $18.02 and reaching an intraday high around $19.44.

The move caps a headline-heavy stretch for the Earth-observation company—where “space stock” hype has been increasingly replaced by something more concrete: rising revenue, a sharply higher outlook, major government and defense wins, and visible progress on next‑gen satellite capacity.

Below is a detailed roundup of the latest Planet Labs stock news, analyst forecasts, and key catalysts investors are weighing as of Dec. 19, 2025.

Why Planet Labs stock is moving on Dec. 19, 2025

Today’s rally looks like an extension of momentum that accelerated after Planet’s fiscal Q3 2026 results earlier this month—results that combined record revenue, exploding backlog metrics, and a raised full‑year revenue outlook. ^[1]

The underlying narrative is fairly straightforward (even if the stock action is not):

Planet is positioning itself less as “pretty pictures from space” and more as a mission-critical geospatial intelligence and AI-enabled monitoring platform for defense, intelligence, and sovereign customers. ^[2]
Investors are paying up for visibility—and Planet’s contract metrics (RPOs/backlog) have suddenly started shouting instead of whispering. ^[3]
The company is also signaling it can scale with new satellites, including Pelican, while pushing AI closer to the edge—literally on-orbit compute. ^[4]

The core catalyst: Planet’s Q3 FY2026 results raised the bar

On Dec. 10, 2025, Planet reported results for the quarter ended Oct. 31, 2025, headlined by:

Record Q3 revenue of $81.3 million (up 33% YoY)
Remaining Performance Obligations (RPOs) of $672 million (up 361% YoY)
Backlog of $734 million (up 216% YoY)
Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $677.3 million at quarter-end
Adjusted EBITDA of $5.6 million profit (its fourth consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA profitability, per the release) ^[5]

That combination—growth plus improving cash profile plus contract visibility—tends to act like rocket fuel for a small/mid-cap stock that already has a “space + defense + AI” label attached to it.

Guidance: Planet moved its FY2026 revenue forecast higher

Planet also issued a notably stronger outlook:

Q4 FY2026 revenue expected at $76 million to $80 million (quarter ending Jan. 31, 2026)
Full-year FY2026 revenue expected at $297 million to $301 million ^[6]

In a market that loves forward numbers more than backward numbers, that guidance shift mattered—a lot. Reuters’ earnings-day note also highlighted the raised FY26 revenue outlook and that Q3 revenue beat the analyst estimate cited by LSEG data. ^[7]

Contract visibility: the “backlog boom” is tied to defense and sovereign demand

Planet’s growing focus on defense, intelligence, and sovereign customers isn’t just a strategy slide—it’s showing up in a steady drumbeat of contracts and expansions.

NATO: “seven-figure” contract for AI-enabled monitoring and early warning

In mid-2025, Planet announced it had been selected for a seven‑figure contract with NATO to deliver advanced daily monitoring and intelligence capabilities, pairing Planet’s broad area monitoring with AI/ML analytics for persistent surveillance and maritime domain awareness. ^[8]

U.S. NGA (Luno B): $12.8 million award for AI-enabled maritime domain awareness

In October, Planet said its subsidiary Planet Labs Federal received a $12.8 million initial award under the NGA’s Luno B IDIQ vehicle—focused on “Advanced Analytics for Maritime Operations and Reconnaissance,” including vessel detections and monitoring in the Asia-Pacific. ^[9]

Germany: €240 million “dedicated capacity” satellite services agreement, revenue starts in 2026

One of the most financially significant recent announcements: Planet’s German unit disclosed a multi‑year €240 million agreement, funded by the German government, for dedicated capacity and direct downlink services on Pelican satellites over specific European regions. The company said it expects to begin recognizing revenue in January 2026, ramping over several years. ^[10]

That “dedicated capacity” model matters because it’s structurally different from selling imagery subscriptions: it’s closer to selling sovereign-aligned access and responsiveness, which can command premium, multi-year spending.

Satellite milestones: Pelican launches, “first light,” and AI at the edge

Planet’s stock story in late 2025 isn’t only contracts—it’s also execution: getting hardware up, working, and producing.

Pelican-5 and Pelican-6 launch

Planet announced the successful launch of Pelican‑5 and Pelican‑6 plus 36 SuperDoves on SpaceX’s Transporter‑15 mission (Falcon 9) from Vandenberg. ^[11]

“First light” from Pelican-6 — plus NVIDIA Jetson chips onboard

Soon after, Planet released “first light” imagery from Pelican‑6, noting the image was taken on Dec. 4, 2025 from about 519 km altitude. The company also disclosed that this first generation of Pelican satellites supports its 50 cm products and includes NVIDIA Jetson AI chips for on-orbit edge compute, while next-gen Pelicans are designed for 30 cm-class resolution imagery. ^[12]

In plain English: Planet is trying to make its satellites not just cameras in space, but computers in space, pushing AI processing closer to where data is created. That can shorten time-to-insight for customers who care about “what changed?” now, not next week.

Berlin production expansion: manufacturing scale as a competitive weapon

On the manufacturing side, Reuters reported Planet planned its first satellite production site outside the U.S., in Berlin, describing an investment of an “eight‑figure sum” aimed at doubling high‑resolution satellite capacity. Reuters also noted Planet expected to add up to 70 employees to its Berlin base. ^[13]

Analyst forecasts and price targets: bullish upgrades… and valuation pushback

When a stock runs fast, Wall Street’s spreadsheets scramble to catch up (and sometimes trip).

Reuters/LSEG snapshot: ratings skew positive, but targets lagged the rally

Reuters’ earnings-day report said broker ratings were tilted positive (more “buy” than “hold”), with a median price target around $16 in the dataset cited—at that time. ^[14]

With PL trading around $19+ today, one key takeaway is that the stock has outrun many consensus targets, forcing analysts either to raise targets or argue that the upside is now more limited.

Notable upgrades and higher targets

A MarketBeat roundup from Dec. 11 pointed to multiple target increases (for example, Wedbush raising its target to $20 and maintaining an outperform-equivalent rating; it also referenced higher targets from other firms). ^[15]

Needham also maintained a Buy stance around that same period, per a Nasdaq/Fintel write-up. ^[16]

A real bear note to remember: Citizens’ downgrade after Investor Day

Not every analyst has been cheering. Citizens downgraded Planet from Market Outperform to Market Perform in October, arguing the stock had moved beyond their prior target and expressing concern about limited upside and questions around the company’s evolving model and capacity buildout. ^[17]

That tension—big opportunity, but rapidly rising expectations—is often where volatile stocks live.

The volatility factor: short interest and “space stock” reflexes

Planet Labs has repeatedly shown large post-earnings moves—upward and sometimes violently so. Barron’s highlighted that volatility has been amplified in part by short interest around 13% (as reported in its coverage of the earnings reaction). ^[18]

High short interest doesn’t guarantee a squeeze, but it can add gasoline to the fire when news surprises to the upside.

The bigger strategic bet: Planet’s pivot toward “satellite services” and sovereign customers

Two deals help frame this shift:

Germany’s €240 million dedicated capacity agreement (revenue expected to start in Jan. 2026). ^[19]
A $230 million deal Planet signed to build Pelican satellites for an Asia-Pacific customer (its biggest contract at the time), according to Reuters—paid over seven years, with delivery in 2026, and structured so Planet would operate the satellites while the customer gets priority tasking. ^[20]

That second point is important: Planet is expanding beyond being a “data-only” seller into a hybrid of data + services + infrastructure-like capacity for customers that want sovereignty without building a whole satellite program themselves.

Reuters also reported Japan’s SKY Perfect JSAT planned a $230 million investment to develop an Earth-observation constellation in collaboration with Planet, using Planet’s Pelican model—another signal that Planet’s satellite/services approach is finding real buyers. ^[21]

Key risks investors are weighing in PL stock right now

Even the best satellite has to obey physics—and so does the stock.

Execution risk: Launches, commissioning, calibration, and constellation build-out are hard. Planet itself notes image quality improves as satellites complete calibration and reach final operational orbits. ^[22]

Margin pressure while scaling: Planet’s Q3 release showed gross margin down year-over-year (GAAP and non-GAAP). Scaling satellite services and building capacity can be capital intensive. ^[23]

Business model transition risk: Several analyst comments (including Citizens’ October downgrade rationale) have pointed to uncertainty around how the satellite services shift changes the long-term financial model. ^[24]

Customer concentration and geopolitical dependence: A growing share of the thesis is tied to government/defense spending cycles. Contracts are powerful—until procurement priorities shift.

Valuation risk: With PL now trading well above many older consensus targets, the stock is increasingly priced for continued execution, not merely “potential.”

What investors are watching next into early 2026

As of Dec. 19, 2025, the next set of catalysts investors commonly focus on includes:

Revenue recognition beginning in January 2026 for the German €240 million agreement (per Planet’s statement), and how quickly that ramps. ^[25]
Progress on Pelican constellation expansion and what the company demonstrates with on-orbit AI capabilities. ^[26]
Whether Planet continues stacking defense and intelligence wins like Luno B (NGA) and NATO-related programs. ^[27]
Updates on the company’s broader financial trajectory as FY2026 closes out (fiscal year ends Jan. 31, 2026 per guidance framing) and whether the raised revenue outlook holds. ^[28]

Bottom line on Planet Labs stock on Dec. 19, 2025

Planet Labs PBC is trading like a company that has successfully climbed into a “credible growth + defense demand + AI platform” narrative—and, crucially, has started producing the financial and contract metrics that make that narrative harder to dismiss.

But PL stock’s surge into the high teens (and beyond) also means the market is no longer valuing Planet as a turnaround “maybe.” It’s valuing it as a company that must keep landing major deals, scaling satellite capacity, and turning AI-enabled monitoring into durable, high-margin revenue.