Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 24, 2026
Planet Labs Pbc (PL)
A forensic read on Planet Labs Pbc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-14.9
P / E (ttm)
-131.0%
ROE
$6.0B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
25.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Planet Labs Pbc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-16.8%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -16.8% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -28%. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2024–FY2026 ($481M to $447M, -7%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
+4.9%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +10% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+4.9%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.9% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2024 has been diluted ~9%.
18% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 18% of revenue and 104% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.18 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 4.9% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
n/m (sign flip)
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets flipped from positive to negative FY2025→FY2026 (FY2025 $+323.2M to FY2026 $-41.0M) — the standard accruals ratio divides by the average of the two, which collapses toward zero right as the sign changes, so the resulting percentage is a denominator artifact, not a real accrual measurement. Treat this as a structural balance-sheet shift to understand on its own terms rather than a clean or dirty accruals read.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$307.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+25.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+18.1%
Net Margin-80.2%
Free Cash Flow$52.9M
Return on Equity-131.0%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Planet Labs Pbc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 74 to 83 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +50% vs revenue +26%). Receivables grew, but deferred revenue grew +168% over the same period too — rising alongside rising unearned revenue reads as upfront billing on multi-period contracts, not slipping collections.