Beyond Meat’s “Beyond Burger” patties made from plant-based substitutes for meat.
Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images
It’s been a wild week for Beyond Meat stock, which some hope will be the next so-called meme stock to take off.
Beyond Meat (ticker: BYND) is up 2.1% to $145.58 in recent trading, although at its intraday highs, shares gained nearly 35% in the past five days. The shares are up nearly 15% year to date.
The move comes after Jim Cramer touted the stock on his CNBC program Mad Money earlier this week, arguing that the stock’s prospects look poised to improve dramatically when Americans more fully return to restaurants. He also thinks that the Reddit crowd should take a look at the shares, as they scout for targets beyond staples GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC).
Beyond Meat was one of the stocks caught up in the short selling squeeze in late January, and more than a quarter of its float—or the number of shares available to the public—remains shorted, a figure that has been on the rise.
Some on Reddit have taken his advice, while others criticized his remarks as a ploy to get individual investors to move money out of GameStop and AMC.
That said, there was some actual news moving the stock this week as well. On Monday, Bernstein flipped from bearish to bullish on Beyond Meat, and on Wednesday the company announced an expansion of its partnership with KFC China, with a limited run of a plant-based spicy beef wrap.
On Friday, Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow reiterated a Neutral rating on the shares, writing that he’s increasingly hearing from investors interested in the stock’s recent move. He says that while he admires “the company’s competitive advantages in the fast-growing meat alternatives category,” he’s still on the sidelines, given that so much of what could make or break the stock hinges on actions taken by its fast food partners.
Write to Teresa Rivas at [email protected]
