Street remains cautious on Beyond Meat shares after another messy print

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Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) reported weaker-than-expected third quarter results and offered guidance that didn’t meet the average analyst estimates. Still, Beyond Meat shares trade about 1.5% higher in pre-market trading Thursday.

Beyond Meat reported a loss per share of $1.60 on revenue of $82.5 million, a big miss compared to the consensus that had expected a loss per share of $1.13 on revenue of $114.27M. Overall, revenue fell 22.5% compared to a year-ago period.

“All markets and channels were negatively impacted by a combination of weaker than expected demand in the category and certain customer and distributor changes such as reductions in targeted inventory levels, among other factors,” Beyond Meat said in its release.

“As we shared last month, Beyond Meat is executing a full-force pivot to a sustainable growth model, emphasizing the achievement of cash flow positive operations within the second half of 2023,” President and CEO Ethan Brown added.

Rivian expects to record 2022 revenues of $400-425M, a forecast that missed the consensus of $453.4M.

Piper Sandler analysts reaffirmed an Underweight rating and a $6 per share price target that implies a downside risk of almost 50%.

“We remain bearish on BYND and continue to believe there are risks to its outlook, particularly given price compression in plant-based meat, consumer downtrading, and elevated costs in the current inflationary environment. Its balance sheet also remains a concern. Given its concerns about GMOs, Beyond shuns precision fermentation technology that we believe improves product taste (and texture), and consumers overwhelmingly cite taste as their key consideration for plant-based meat,” the analysts wrote in a client note.

BMO analysts are relatively more positive on Beyond Meat shares, given the company’s cost-cutting measures. Still, they lowered the price target to $14 per share from $20 to reflect growing headwinds.

“We remain on the sidelines given the litany of headwinds faced by BYND, including 1) a significant secular and sustained pricing headwind; 2) the lingering effects associated with its profit-dilutive growth strategy; and 3) an exceedingly challenging retail environment that intertwines subdued consumer demand for plant-based products with heightened competitive activity,” the analysts said.