Favorable Market Outlook Lifted Planet Labs, PBC (PL) in Q3

• StockStory Top Pick PL -2.31%

Meridian Funds, managed by ArrowMark Partners, released its “Meridian Contrarian Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Equities hit a record high in the third quarter, fueled by continued gains in technology and falling bond yields. Easing tariff rhetoric and renewed AI infrastructure investments boosted large tech stocks. In mid-September U.S. Federal Reserve lowered rates by 25 basis points. In this environment, the fund returned 6.72% (net) during the quarter, underperforming the 9.00% returns of the Russell 2500 Index and 8.18% returns of the secondary benchmark, the Russell 2500 Value Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Meridian Contrarian Fund highlighted stocks such as Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL). Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) engages in the design, construction, and launch of constellations of satellites that provide high cadence geospatial data. The one-month return of Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) was -9.78%, and its shares gained 163.86% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 28, 2025, Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) stock closed at $11.90 per share, with a market capitalization of $3.664 billion.

Meridian Contrarian Fund stated the following regarding Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) is a satellite and earth imaging company. They image the entire Earth daily with their constellation of proprietary satellites and have a database of more than 15 years of images which they sell as data. The data is analyzed and used for customer applications in defense, agriculture, conservation, and insurance, and is continually expanding to new use cases. We initially invested in 2024, when the stock fell out of favor due to slowing revenue growth in their commercial segment, a casualty of slowing enterprise software spending. We estimated that the stock was trading below our estimate of the value of its assets, including satellites, databases, and net cash. The market was placing little value on the business despite leading technology, a huge addressable market, and a good balance sheet. The stock performed strongly in the quarter due to a favorable market outlook for defense-related companies (while Planet Lab’s defense and government business continued to grow strongly), and improvement in the commercial business. We continue to hold a position in the company as we believe it has significant room to grow in the large potential earth imaging and analysis market. We did, however, reduce our position into strength during the quarter as part of our risk management process."

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) at the end of the third quarter, which was 32 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) and shared Conestoga Capital Advisors' views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.