What happened
Hardly for the first time this young year, Beyond Meat (BYND 4.62%) had a down day on the stock market. The company, which is about to deliver its final quarterly earnings report for 2021, took a 6%-plus hit to its share price following a fresh price-target cut from an analyst this morning.
So what
The wielder of the blade was Jefferies' Rob Dickerson, who sliced his target to $55 from the preceding level of $90 for a fairly deep cut. He's maintaining his hold recommendation on the stock, meanwhile.
Image source: Getty Images.
In a new research note, Dickerson wrote of Beyond Meat that, "With U.S. tracked-channel trends pointing to ongoing category growth pressures, limited pricing, and weakening velocities... we remain cautious in the near-term."
The Jefferies prognosticator is not the only analyst who's lukewarm-to-bearish on Beyond Meat's prospects.
On average, according to Yahoo! Finance, analysts tracking the stock are expecting the company's revenue to essentially be stagnant. Worse, they collectively believe that its net loss will double and then some; they're modeling a $0.71 per share deficit for the fourth quarter, against the $0.34 Beyond Meat lost in the year-ago quarter.
Now what
Dickerson's latest note highlights several major concerns investors have with Beyond Meat these days. Although the company has notched major successes with supermarket chains and wide-network restaurant behemoths like McDonald's, it struggles against growing competition and consistently posts losses.
This sentiment will dramatically change if the company delivers much better-than-expected fourth-quarter numbers, but the current state of the alt-protein segment doesn't suggest that will happen.
Beyond Meat's fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 conference call is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 24.
