BYND rises on elevated volumes, has now doubled in the last 10 days after product revamps
Beyond Meat soared as much as 18% in overnight trading, extending its winning streak that has seen the stock nearly double since April 10, after gaining over 41% in yesterday's session alone.
That's a significant turnaround for the alternative meat company, which just three weeks ago was tanking after issuing weak sales guidance... with the company's management laying blame on American society for its business struggles.
Beyond repair?
BYND has had two distinct moments in the sun: one as a bonafide startup stud promising to transform the food industry forever in 2020 and 2021, the other as a meme-stock, when the company suddenly found itself the center of a retail trading frenzy last October after a tumultuous few years.
Sparking this latest tick higher appears to be a new product release from last Thursday, when the company revealed that Beyond Immerse, the company's first functional beverage line, had signed a distribution agreement with Big Geyser — one of the country's largest non-alcoholic distributors. That followed an update to its breakfast sausage range on just three days before.
It's a big ask for a new sausage or protein-packed drinks with fruity flavors — both highly competitive categories — to save the company that's seen its sales sink, losses balloon, and share price cater. But the product news, combined with Beyond appeasing Nasdaq regulators by finally filing its delayed 2025 annual report, seems to be enough to reinvigorate investor interest, shaking off some concerns about a delisting.
Perhaps most importantly however, is that retail traders are once again fishing in the higher-risk, higher-reward, end of the stock market pond. Risk-on assets have ripped higher in the last few weeks as geopolitical risks calmed, bringing indexes to an all-time high and meme-like stocks soar up on speculative excitement rather than business fundamentals. Just from last week, we’ve seen Allbirds and Myseum skyrocket on a surprise AI pivot news. Retail favorites like quantum name IonQ have also caught a bid.
But, for Beyond, this ain't 2021, yet. And it's still nowhere near last October, either:
Per Bloomberg data, there's still plenty of interest in betting against the company — short interest as a percent of the equity float is at 35% — but still small compared to the 83% in its October high.
In simple volume terms, BYND traded only some $224 million as of yesterday — a tiny fraction of October's busiest day, when $11 billion changed hands.
