Was expecting something meatier... Beyond Meat's sales tripled for the quarter as it sprints around food shows trying to lock up deals with fast food chains. But investors were disappointed by its losses: the previous quarter, Beyond was profitable — this past quarter, not so much. So the stock got quarter-pounded, falling over 10% on the news.
- Beyond's quarterly loss was $452K. Not bad, considering last year's same-quarter loss was $7.5M.
- Buuuut... investors were looking for a repeat of last quarter's profitability — once you go profitable, unprofitability looks even uglier.
Alt-meat life be like a rollercoaster... Beyond has had some stock trauma since its IPO in May. It nearly quadrupled after going public — then it dropped by half. Still, the IPO was a big, meaty marketing win: Awareness of the Beyond Meat brand has nearly tripled since its IPO. There was also a crazy week of alt-meat packed news leading up to Beyond's recent earnings:
Is Beyond the LaCroix of plant-based meat?... When the barriers to entry are low, competition comes easy: LaCroix was the first mover to start the flavored sparkling water frenzy, but it was soon inundated by a carbonated wave of rivals (Pepsi, Coke, Spindrift, et al). Similarly, Beyond Meat pioneered alt-meat meat life. Now, competition is everywhere (Impossible, Kellogg, Tyson, etc.) — and that's slowing Beyond's plant-based growth.