When it comes to evaluating small-to-medium sized companies, investors should look for names with useful, validated technology, impressive customers, encouraging financial results, an adept CEO, and a reasonable valuation. BlackSky (BKSY), which provides intelligence using detailed satellite imagery, has all of these qualities, making it a good name for some growth investors to consider.
The firm has a market capitalization of $835 million, putting it in the medium category.
Useful, Validated Technology and Impressive Customers
BlackSky’s Gen 3 satellites provide “hourly revisit with very-high resolution imagery and AI-enabled outputs delivered at industry-leading speed,” according to the company.
Of course, in the current era of intense, worldwide conflict, with the U.S. and many of its allies extremely worried about the intentions of China, Russia, and Iran, intelligence is extremely valuable. And since BlackSky’s satellites frequently provide information and utilize AI, while offering “very high resolution imagery” and “industry-leading speed,” they are likely quite proficient and furnish very helpful information.
Providing evidence for the latter contention and validating its technology, BlackSky already has many impressive customers, even if many of them are, for understandable reasons, unnamed. For example, the U.S. Navy, NASA, and an unnamed “international defence customer” are all using its technology.
Encouraging Financial Results and an Adept CEO
In the first half of 2025, the company’s revenue advanced 5.1% versus the same period a year earlier to $51.7 million. Moreover, it generated net cash from operating activities of nearly $20 million during the same period, representing a meaningful improvement over its operating cash burn of $5.6 million in the first half of 2024.
And boding well for its outlook, Wall Street analysts on average expect its sales to surge to $155.6 million in 2026, way up from $115.5 million in 2025.
CEO Brian O’Toole has a great deal of experience in geospatial intelligence, having served as Chief Technology Officer of GeoEye and a founder and CEO of OpenWhere. Both of these firms, which were in the geospatial sector, were acquired by larger counterparts, as GeoEye bought rival DigitalGlobe in 2013 and OpenWhere became part of BlackSky in 2016.
The fact that both of these firms were bought by companies within their sector suggests that they had become quite successful, reflecting very well on O’Toole’s leadership and knowledge of the geospatial sector.
Valuation and the Bottom Line on BKSY Stock
The shares have a price-sales ratio of 6.5 times. That’s quite low for the defense sector at this point, as Palladyne (PDYN) and RedCat (RCAT), for example, have price-sales ratios of 72.3 times and 49 times, respectively.
Further, BlackSky expects to generate $0 million to $10 million of EBITDA this year, excluding certain items, suggesting that it’s not very far away from profitability.
Given the company’s admirable customer base, strong CEO, encouraging financial data, and attractive valuation, I believe that patient, risk-tolerant, long-term growth investors can consider buying BKSY stock at this point.
*This article is intended to be informational only; it is not financial advice.
