Traders Purchase Large Volume of Planet Labs PBC Call Options (NYSE:PL)

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 28,456 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 86% compared to the average volume of 15,278 call options.

Planet Labs PBC Price Performance

Planet Labs PBC stock traded up $4.00 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $16.94. The stock had a trading volume of 24,273,255 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,385,084. The company has a market cap of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.77 and a beta of 2.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $13.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.11. Planet Labs PBC has a 52 week low of $2.79 and a 52 week high of $17.54.

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 10th. The company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by ($0.17). Planet Labs PBC had a negative net margin of 34.46% and a negative return on equity of 20.25%. The firm had revenue of $81.25 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.02 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 32.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Planet Labs PBC will post -0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Planet Labs PBC in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Planet Labs PBC in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Planet Labs PBC in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Planet Labs PBC in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Planet Labs PBC from $16.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Planet Labs PBC currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.16.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Robert H. Schingler sold 81,656 shares of Planet Labs PBC stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.50, for a total transaction of $1,265,668.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,288,843 shares in the company, valued at $19,977,066.50. This trade represents a 5.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 17.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Planet Labs PBC

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Planet Labs PBC during the second quarter valued at about $1,947,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Planet Labs PBC by 54.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,856,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,274,000 after purchasing an additional 653,173 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA boosted its stake in Planet Labs PBC by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 934,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,000 after purchasing an additional 135,680 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Planet Labs PBC by 13.1% during the 2nd quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 427,365 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,607,000 after purchasing an additional 49,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eleva Capital SAS acquired a new position in Planet Labs PBC during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $787,000. 41.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.