Will Beyond Meat’s Return Be Justified by Earnings After the Close?

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets close on Monday. The consensus estimates are $0.01 in earnings per share (EPS) and $77.34 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 Monday’s move, Beyond Meat stock had outperformed the broad markets with gain of about 54% in the past month. However, the stock is down 46% in the past six months.

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

• Jefferies has a Hold rating with a $130 price target.
• Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating and a $125 price target.
• Bernstein rates it as Market Perform with a $106 price target.
• Oppenheimer has a Market Perform rating.
• BNP Paribas rates it as Underperform rating with a $50 target.

Shares of Beyond Meat were last seen up about 7% at $127.70, in a post-IPO range of $45.00 to $239.71. The consensus price target is $108.41.

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