Analysts at Mizuho said investors should avoid Beyond Meat because consumer demand for alternative meat products is weakening, after its stock soared earlier this week. The investment bank, which rates the stock with an underperform rating, lowered its price target on the animal-free meat company from $2.00 to $1.50, implying a 50% downside. Beyond Meat once sold for nearly $240 a share at the height of the alternative meat boom in summer 2019, after Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse went public at $25 a share in an initial public offering in May 2019. At some point in 2020, about 23 Wall Street analysts covered Beyond Meat. Currently, only eight people do so. One day last week, Beyond Meat stock sold for just 50 cents a share. Cautious Outlook Mizuho analyst John Baumgartner said in a client note on Friday: “We have a cautious outlook for plant-based meat alternative sales growth given weak retail unit prices and increased consumer interest in protein and animal meat.” Beyond Meat’s stock price has tumbled over the past five years, starting with a 48% plunge in 2021 and plummeting even further until Round Hill Investments added the stock to the Round Hill Meme Stocks ETF (MEME) on Monday. Beyond’s inclusion in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) triggered a short squeeze that sent the stock up more than 1,300% in four days of rally this week, but the decline sent the stock back to summer trading levels. The stock is now trading at just over $3, down 60% from Wednesday’s high of $7.69. Beyond rose about 7% in early trading Friday after the company previously said it expected third-quarter net sales of about $70 million, higher than analysts expected. However, Mizuho analysts said Beyond Meat will continue to suffer from “weak fundamentals.” Of the eight Street analysts currently covering Beyond Meat, none currently rate it a buy. According to FactSet data, five analysts rate the stock as a sell, while only three rate it as a hold. Despite the recent meme stock frenzy, Beyond Meat is still down 23% in 2025 after falling 58% in 2024.
