Companies and Brands

Can Beyond Meat Overcome This Market Carnage With Q4 Results?

Chris Lange

Published: February 27, 2020 1:35 pm

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates are $0.01 in earnings per share (EPS) and $79.5 million in revenue.

While shares of Beyond Meat are still handily above the initial public offering price of $25 and never even traded below $45 after opening, the shares were also down from that blow-off peak that was seen in the summer. A subsequent secondary offering has still been followed by rapid revenue growth.

The question that investors are asking now is at what price the risks no longer greatly exceed the potential rewards here. Analysts seem to be suggesting that this may be the time when the equilibrium of risk and reward have finally met.

The category of plant-based meat alternatives might not exactly be brand new, but Beyond Meat is effectively the first company that has made its meat alternatives go mainstream and get into more restaurant chains than can easily be counted. The company also has been rapidly expanding its U.S. operations, with growth plans already laid in Europe and an expected launch in 2020 somewhere in Asia.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Beyond Meat stock had outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 49% year to date. However, in the past six months, the share price is actually down 27.5%.

A few analysts weighed in on Beyond Meat ahead of the report:

• Sanford Bernstein rates it as Market Perform with a $117 price target.
• Piper Sandler has a Neutral rating with a $115 price target.
• JPMorgan has a Neutral rating and a $134 target price.
• The Jefferies Hold rating comes with a $130 price target.
• Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating with a $125 price target.

Beyond Meat stock traded down about 3% at $109.39 on Thursday, in a post-IPO range of $45.00 to $239.71. The consensus price target is $107.05.