At first glance, the fourth quarter earnings report published late on February 27 by the plant-based foods company Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) is nothing to write home about.
BYND not only continued its long-standing trend of diminishing in terms of sales volume – in stores despite the promotion discounts and in restaurants as promotions ended – and revenue but also unveiled losses per share far more significant than the analysts were forecasting.
The $155 million in net losses ultimately amounted to a per-share loss of $2.40 instead of the forecasted $0.89.
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Despite the string of negative developments, investors found enough silver lining in the Q4 report and earnings call that Beyond Meat stock shot up more than 100% at one point – and by press time, a total of 67.02% – in the extended session, effectively erasing the previous 6 months of losses.
Why did BYND stock shoot up?
Amid the doom and gloom of the Q4 report, several key metrics emerged to provide what looks like a light at the end of the tunnel for Beyond Meat. The first of these is that, while it is down compared to Q4 2022, BYND’s revenue came in significantly higher than the analyst expectations of $66.7 million – $73.7 million.
More significant than this is that, despite declining overall, Beyond Meat reported that in Europe, BYND store sales rose 22%, and restaurant sales – particularly fast-food restaurant sales – are up 34%.
Perhaps most significant was the announcement that Beyond Meat plans to reshuffle its operations to build a leaner corporate structure and to cut costs generally with the overarching goal of returning growth to BYND.
BYND stock price chart
While BYND stock’s extended session surge is one of the biggest ones in vivid memory, its longer-term stock market performance is little other than depressing.
The company has been caught in the midst of a long downturn that saw Beyond Meat shares fall as much as 88.74% since BYND’s initial public offering (IPO).
The last 52 weeks were comparatively brutal, and Beyond Meat declined 57.85% in the time frame.
The decline in 2024 has been somewhat less pronounced as BYND is only 8.18% in the red year-to-date (YTD), and the most recent trend – even when ignoring the latest extended session surge – has been hinting at recovery.
The last 30 days of trading saw Beyond Meat rise 6.06%, and BYND closed 0.94% in the green at $7.52 on Tuesday, February 28, just before the earnings report was published.
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