Selling Some Planet Labs After Major Google Announcement
The news likely helped push the major space stocks higher.
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Pure-play space-related names easily outperformed the broader marketplace on Thursday. This came on news-related events that impacted a number of our portfolio holdings.
Alphabet (GOOGL) announced that the hyperscaler will fly a prototype satellite with four TPU AI chips on SpaceX’s (SPCX) Transporter-18 rideshare, built with portfolio holding Planet Labs (PL). In our opinion, this is a potentially significant upside catalyst for Planet Labs and probably helped move the majority of space stocks higher.
Of course, SpaceX itself did not benefit from the move as that name struggled through news that accounts owned by President Trump had sold the stock back in mid-July. PL shares were up 7.6% on Thursday and have held those gains overnight.
Elsewhere, Iridium (IRDM) shareholders voted to adopt the agreement and merger plan under which portfolio holding Rocket Lab (RKLB) would acquire the company. Approximately 99.6% of the votes cast were in favor of the transaction, representing about 81% of Iridium’s outstanding shares of common stock that are entitled to vote.
Under the terms of that transaction, Iridium stockholders will receive $27 in cash and a number of shares of Rocket Lab common stock calculated pursuant to an exchange ratio for each share of Iridium common stock outstanding at closing. The transaction has a notional value of $54 per share of IRDM and is expected to be completed by mid-2027. RKLB was up 4.7% on Thursday and has also held those gains overnight.
Outside of the portfolio, Redwire (RDW) won a slot on a Space Force NITE-STAR IDIQ worth as much as $980 million. Momentus (MNTS) was awarded a NASA task order to support the competitive mission formulation phase of the Fleet for the Atmosphere Linking Commercial Observations with the NASA-Lidar mission. On those news items, RDW popped for a gain of 2.9% while MNTS was up 1.3%. Additionally, ASTS SpaceMobile (ASTS), which is not a portfolio name here, but is a Sarge-folio name, gained 1.8% on Thursday and is trading higher overnight as well.
Trading
The portfolio is going to re-enter the (PSKY) order that has not resulted in an execution all week on Friday. That said, I do not consider this to be a good ’til cancel (GTC) order and will likely walk away next week if there is no initiation on Friday. I still intend to add to ONDS but only at a discount. Conversely, I am going to lay out some sell orders in our space names well above the last sale just in case these stocks pop again on Friday. Don’t get your hopes up. These are simply being entered because I cannot update this note later.
Wednesday’s Intention vs Actual Trade
Intention: Purchase 10 shares of (ONDS) at $7.30 (limited) or better
Actual trade: Nothing done
Intention: Purchase 10 shares of (PTON) at $4.75 (limited) or better
Actual trade: Bought 10 shares of PTON at $4.75
Intention: Purchase 15 shares of PSKY at $9.75 (limited) or better
Actual trade: Nothing done
Friday’s Intentions
Purchase 15 shares of PSKY at $9.75 (limited) or better
Purchase 10 shares of ONDS at $7.30 (limited) or better
Sell 2 shares of RKLB at $80.00 (limited) or better
Sell 15 shares of PL at $20.00 (limited) or better
Current Positions
Long 60 shares of (ASPN) at $5.1083. Target price: $10. Last sale: $5.32.
Long 100 shares of (EVLV) at $5.7883. Target price: $8.50. Last sale: $4.97.
Long 110 shares of (OCUL) at $8.6209. Target price: $14. Last sale: $9.84.
Long 250 shares of (ONDS) at $8.0932. Target price: $12. Last sale: $7.66.
Long 100 shares of (PL) at $20.3367. Target price: $26. Last sale: $17.98.
Long 60 shares of (PTON) at $5.0263. Target price: $9. Last sale: $4.81.
Long 7 shares of (RKLB) at $73.8629. Target price: $97. Last sale: $74.33.
Long 120 shares of (SOFI) at $16.0609. Target price: $24. Last sale: $16.82.
Short one SOFI $22 November 19 call at $1.20, Last sale: $0.26.
Long 50 shares of (SWBI) at $14.0414. Target price: $19. Last sale: $14.25.
Long 50 shares of (VELO) at $10.265. Target price: $18. Last sale: $11.11.
Cash: $322.10.
Portfolio value: $10,002.94, up very small from inception on March 24.
At the time of publication, Guilfoyle was long ASTS, ASPN, EVLV, OCUL, ONDS, PL, PTON, RKLB, SOFI, SWBI and VELO.
