On Friday, Beyond Meat stock fell after the company’s stock was downgraded to Sell from Hold by analysts at Argus Research. The analysts cited sluggish demand and extensive losses at the creator of plant-based meat replacements as the primary reasons for their decision.
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) has distributed its products to retail locations and quick-service restaurants, including Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and KFC. However, according to the experts, Kristina Ruggeri led, the demand for plant-based protein has decreased as customers hunt for less expensive alternatives. In addition, there is an increase in competition within the sector, and the company has been impacted “by ‘poor utilization’ charges and termination costs from co-manufacturers.”
According to Ruggeri, who referred to the layoffs of personnel at Beyond Meat and the continuing low utilization charges, the future does not appear to be very promising. She stated that even though Beyond Meat has attempted to refocus its focus on “core products and positive cash flow,” it is doubtful that this will be sufficient to counteract low demand and ongoing losses.
Beyond Meat Stock Downgrade
The downgrade by Argus comes on the heels of a previous one by a Barclays analyst named Benjamin Theurer, who moved his rating on the stock from Equal Weight to Underweight a month ago. At that time, the stock price had already dropped 81% in 2022, but Theurer predicted that “the worst is still to come.”
According to a piece of writing he produced at the time, he stated that “despite our request for considerably higher beef prices by 2025, alternative meat companies may not necessarily gain.” “It takes time for consumer habits to change. Beyond Meat’s average price of $8.35 per pound for ground beef in the third quarter of 2022 is already 72% more than the USDA’s $4.85 per pound for ground beef in September 2022.”
On Friday, Beyond Meat Stock dropped by around 8.9%. They have lost almost 77% of their value so far this year.
This year, the performance of other participants in the traditional food business has been more favorable. The share price of Tyson Foods TSN +0.32%, a company that produces beef, pig, chicken, and ready-made foods, has decreased by almost 24 percent this year. Hormel Foods has seen its share price increase by 3.0%, Kellogg has seen its share price increase by 16.4%, and Campbell Soup has seen its share price increase by 30.5%.
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