What happened
Shares of Beyond Meat (BYND -1.89%) were up 4.7% as of 3:13 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The stock price had been falling in recent weeks over concerns about the company's widening net losses.
However, investors received welcome news today after it was announced that two food industry veterans are joining the company in top executive roles.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Doug Ramsey is joining the company as chief operating officer. He spent three decades at Tyson Foods, where he oversaw the poultry and McDonald's business. Bernie Adcock also spent 30 years at Tyson, overseeing the supply chain and operations. Adcock will serve as Beyond Meat's new chief supply chain officer.
These are crucial hires for Beyond Meat, which has struggled to deliver a profit, largely because of the higher costs of ingredients that go into making plant-based food products.
Now what
Investors are hopeful that this points to meaningful progress in the company's effort to lower the price of plant-based meat down to parity with animal meat, but most importantly, to do that while still improving profitability.
In that light, Beyond Meat explained that Ramsey and Adcock will be "instrumental in growing Beyond Meat's operations, supply chain, and manufacturing, and driving efficiencies to unlock cost-savings as the company pursues its long-term goal of price parity with animal protein."
Does the news make the stock a buy? The stock is currently trading near the lowest levels since it went public in 2019, but it still looks expensive. Beyond Meat's market capitalization is currently $4.7 billion on top of trailing-12-month revenue of $465 million.
Still, the market for plant-based meat is expected to reach $23 billion by 2024, so there's a lot of growth opportunity here. It's now up to management to show investors a clear pathway to profitability.
