Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) shares were up nearly 420% on the five-day chart at one point on Thursday, October 23, drawing market attention as investors gather around the next big meme stock.
The rally was triggered by the company’s $1.1 billion tender offer last week to repurchase its convertible debt, which generated 316.2 million new shares.
While the move first sent the price lower, traders were quick to realize the offer helped the company get rid of a major financial hurdle and inject liquidity into the market.
At the time of writing, however, BYND shares are changing hands at $3.02, having dropped 15.78% on the day.
Adding more fuel to the fire, Roundhill Investments added Beyond Meat to its Meme Stock ETF (MEME), a move that sent retail traders flocking to the stock and forced short sellers to cover their positions.
Moreover, the debt deal rally is now coinciding with a new partnership with Walmart (NYSE: WMT). As part of the deal, Beyond Meat will bring its plant-based products to more U.S. locations, signaling potential sales growth.
BYND price targets
BYND’s meme stock status becomes more evident once the Wall Street estimates for the El Segundo-based firm’s next year’s performance are taken into account.
The stock has received no price upgrades since the ongoing rally began. The last analysis came in on October 10, when TD Cowen’s Robert Moskow reiterated his “Sell” rating and dropped his yearly price forecast from $2 to $0.8.
In fact, of a total of nine analysts whose predictions have been aggregated on the market analysis website TipRanks, none consider it a “Buy,” four of them saying “Hold” and the remaining five regarding it as a “Sell”.
At press time, the average Beyond Meat stock price target for the next 12 months on the same platform was $2.26. The numbers imply a 36.87% downside from the current price.
All in all, while Beyond Meat’s explosive rally has generated a lot of hype and allowed the market to experience a new meme stock craze, Wall Street sees the surge as detached from any solid fundamentals.
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