What happened
On Thursday, a clutch of stocks on the market were in recovery mode and closed higher. You'd never know that from the performance of Beyond Meat (BYND 0.16%), though, as the alt-protein purveyor's shares tumbled again (by over 4%) in the wake of a very disappointing earnings release.
So what
After that first-quarter earnings report, which dropped after market hours Wednesday, a raft of analysts adjusted their price targets on Beyond Meat stock downwards.
Image source: Getty Images.
Unfortunately for the specialty food company, those prognosticators work at some of the more influential banks and financial services companies on the scene. One is Bank of America, whose analyst Peter Galbo swung a big axe -- he now feels the shares are worth $20 apiece, down sharply from his previous $45. Not surprisingly, he's maintaining his underweight (sell) recommendation on the stock.
"BYND expects incremental improvement in sales/margins over the remainder of FY 2022 with stronger improvement in [the second half of the year]; however, we expect the stock to remain pressured until fundamentals improves," Galbo opined.
The company's more than $100 million net loss was not only significantly deeper than that of the same quarter last year, it was notably steeper than the average prognosticator estimate. Beyond Meat also missed on revenue.
Now what
The Bank of America analyst wasn't alone in getting more bearish about Beyond Meat's prospects. His peers at UBS, JPMorgan Chase, and Barclays -- to name but three -- all enacted deep cuts to their price targets.
Barclays' Benjamin Theurer also went as far as to downgrade his recommendation on the stock. He has reclassified it as equal weight (neutral), from the previous equivalent of buy, with a much lower price target of $25 per share -- this was previously $80.
"1Q results were disappointing and 2Q guidance was less upbeat than our previous estimates. For 2H22 we see sales growth reaccelerating, but margins to remain well below historic levels," Theurer wrote in a new research note.
