What happened
Shares of new IPO Beyond Meat (BYND -1.46%) began trading today at an offer price of $25 a share -- and immediately doubled. Then it came close to doubling again, eventually ending the day at $65.75 per share, up 163% in a single day. Why?
So what
Honestly, this looks like a story of momentum trading, plain and simple. Beyond Meat stock is one of the first "fake meat" companies to come to market. (There's also Boca Burger, of course, but that one's submerged within Kraft Foods.) Beyond Meat also has good name recognition. Consumer Reports gave it a pretty positive write-up just a few years ago, and the company has enjoyed rapid sales growth since, growing its revenues 170% in 2018 alone.
Image source: Getty Images.
Even investors unlucky enough to not get "in" at the IPO price leapt at the chance to own it, adding more than $20 to the share price within minutes of its beginning trading. That gave rise to momentum of its own, and Beyond Meat stock pretty much spent the rest of the day trading up, up, and away!
Now what
What happens next is anyone's guess. On the one hand, it's hard to defend the stock's valuation. At its closing share price of $65.75, Beyond Meat now sports a $3.8 billion market capitalization, is unprofitable, and selling for an incredible 43 times last year's sales.
On the other hand, Beyond Meat has momentum on its side and a richly valuable stock that it can use as currency to buy out rivals such as Don Lee Farms ("Superfoods Veggie Burgers"), Impossible Foods ("Impossible Burger"), and others, should it so desire, helping to corner the market.
So pull up a chair. This one should be good for "dinner and a show" for stock market investors.
