Is PL a high-quality business?

AlphaMadera's AlphaQuality grade scores Planet Labs PBC on six pillars — profitability, capital efficiency, balance-sheet strength, growth durability, cash generation, and shareholder yield. The composite letter grade reflects how PL compares to a Buffett-style quality bar.

What is Planet Labs PBC's AlphaQuality grade?

AlphaQuality assigns a letter grade (A through F) to PL based on a six-pillar quantitative model. The live page shows the composite grade plus each pillar's individual score with the underlying metrics.

What makes PL a quality stock?

AlphaQuality looks at return on capital, free-cash-flow margins, debt-to-equity, revenue stability, dividend and buyback policy, and operating-margin trend. Stocks scoring well across all six pillars earn higher grades — the methodology favors compounders over cyclicals.

PL - Planet Labs PBC

Price: -- -- | CONSENSUS: Buy DETAILS | PRICE TARGET: $43.83 DETAILS

AlphaQuality

Quantitative six-pillar business-quality grade

Platform & Compounding FCF

AlphaQuality — archetype-weighted quantitative grade

F 30.0 / 100 pillar composite

Composite Grade

Composite of six pillars weighted for platform & compounding fcf businesses. Purely quantitative — the six pillars score only reported financials, no analyst input.

⚠ 5 of the last 5 fiscal years showed negative net income — AlphaQuality will not grade above F for persistent unprofitability in a platform & compounding fcf business.

Grade overrides the 30.0 pillar composite because hard gates always win. Use the pillar breakdown below to see where the underlying numbers sit.

Profitability

Weight: 25%

D- 30.0

5yr Avg ROIC -20.7% 0/100
Operating Margin Trend +17.77 pp/yr 100/100

Capital Efficiency

Weight: 15%

F 0.0

5yr Avg ROE -47.1% 0/100
5yr Share-Count CAGR 48.2% 0/100

Growth Quality

Weight: 25%

A+ 100.0

5yr Revenue CAGR 22.2% 100/100
Revenue-Growth Years (5) 5/5 100/100

Cash Generation

Weight: 20%

F 0.0

5yr FCF Margin -27.3% 0/100
5yr FCF/NI Conversion 0.00x 0/100

Balance Sheet

Weight: 10%

F 17.3

Net Debt / EBITDA 10.00x 0/100
Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int) -69.49x 0/100
Altman Z-Score 2.78 69/100

Stability

Weight: 5%

C+ 57.6

Negative-Revenue Years (5) 0/5 100/100
Piotroski F-Score 2 22/100

5 of 5 gurus held; 1 new buy; 4 trimmed.

Holders: 5 +1
Avg Δ position: -27.9%
New buys: 1
Full exits: 0

Dalio new
Cooperman decreased -57%
Greenblatt decreased -28%

How this is calculated

AlphaQuality grades six pillars from 0-100 and weights each by archetype:

Profitability (25%) — 5yr Avg ROIC, Operating Margin Trend
Capital Efficiency (15%) — 5yr Avg ROE, 5yr Share-Count CAGR
Growth Quality (25%) — 5yr Revenue CAGR, Revenue-Growth Years (5)
Cash Generation (20%) — 5yr FCF Margin, 5yr FCF/NI Conversion
Balance Sheet (10%) — Net Debt / EBITDA, Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int), Altman Z-Score
Stability (5%) — Negative-Revenue Years (5), Piotroski F-Score

The six pillars read only reported financial-statement fields — no analyst targets or consensus ratings. The archetype that picks which pillar formulas apply is not fully price-free, though: it can route a company to the distressed/ungradable archetype based on price vs. its 52-week high, and beta affects one classification check. A minimum of 5 fiscal years of audited statements is required. Insurers and banks are graded on their own methodology — insurers on loss ratio, its trend and stability, and premiums-to-surplus; banks on the efficiency ratio, its trend and stability, and equity-to-assets — rather than on industrial margin/ROIC signals. Distressed, highly leveraged infrastructure, asset-manager, and other financial businesses are declared ungradable rather than forced into a numeric score.