Beyond Meat hit a huge corporate milestone — then the stock fell 10%
Thanksgiving's coming up... Vegan kids are hatching "swap the turkey with meatless meat" plans to trick carnivorous dads. Beyond Meat gave shareholders something to celebrate heading into the holiday quarter:
- Growth in all the right places: Revenues more than tripled to $92M, way outpacing costs, leading to its first ever profit.
- How much profit per pound?: A $12 4-pack of quarter-pounder Beyond burgers resulted in 52 cents of profit (based on last quarter's 4% net profit margin).
- What about the future?: Beefy strong — Beyond boosted its revenue projections for the 2nd-straight time as orders from restaurants for sizzle-able pea patties beat expectations.
So why did shares drop 10%?... Not totally clear. Our guess: the end of Beyond's "lockup period." Today's the 6-month anniversary of Beyond's IPO, which means early pre-IPO investors are finally eligible to sell their stock (lockups apply to most newly-listed companies). So nervous investors may have sold to avoid dealing with a potential increase in Tuesday's new "lockup" sellers.
The growth is in restaurants — not groceries... Beyond surged over 200% after its IPO, but has fallen from that high. Food-glomerates like Kellogg and Nestlé have dropped some plant-based competition — and they've shown up in grocery stores. But restaurants (like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Dunkin') power 45% of Beyond's revenues — and those already quintupled (5x) this year.