Beyond Meat (BYND +16.81%) has been in the news recently after taking a big plunge after delaying its third-quarter earnings results. The maker of plant-based alternatives to meat has had a rough run of it, dropping 77% over the past 12 months.
When you look at the company's financial trends, it's not hard to see why. The company has suffered continual losses and declines in revenue for several years, indicating that demand for its products just might not be as strong as originally thought.
The prime case for being weary of this stock comes from the CEO's own words. Ethan Brown commented in the company's Q2 press release that there was "ongoing softness in the plant-based meat category." That's a significant problem for Beyond Meat. The most important thing for any business is to have adequate demand for its product -- otherwise, what's the point?
Looking at the financials, Beyond Meat is stuck in an annual tailspin, where revenues have declined since 2022. Over the last five years, the company has never been profitable, losing hundreds of millions annually. Looking at 2025, the trends haven't changed.
Image source: Getty Images.
What Beyond Meat said
Through the first six months of the year, revenues suffered on almost every front. In the second quarter alone, U.S. retail sales were down a brutal 26.7% year over year, partially offset by a 6.8% gain in domestic food services. In all, total net U.S. revenues were down 20.4% to $43.96 million. Internationally, retail revenues declined 9.8%, while food service revenues fell 25.8%. In all, international revenues were down 18.4% to just under $31 million.
As a whole, total revenues were down 19.6% in the second quarter of 2025. For the full first six months of the year, total revenues were down 14.9% to $143.69 million. The company managed to diminish losses a bit year over year, with a six-month net loss of $82.16 million versus $88.84 million the year before. Still, these aren't promising results.
As of June, the company had $103 million in cash, and a stockholders' deficit of $677 million. Given that the losses seem to be continuing, it seems unlikely that this situation is going to change. If anything, the losses will damage its capital position and further weaken the balance sheet, which makes the current market cap of $552 million seem a bit flawed, and really showcases how silly the sudden October rally for the stock truly was.
NASDAQ: BYND
Key Data Points
What Beyond Meat's future looks like
All evidence points to this painful situation continuing for Beyond Meat. The lack of certainty is such that the company isn't providing guidance for the year. The delay of its third-quarter results because of an impairment charge is perhaps the least of investors' worries. The continuing decline in revenues is what should concern anyone looking at this stock.
Beyond Meat is now planning to report third-quarter results on Nov. 11. It will be interesting to see how the company attempts to navigate what seems to be a continually tougher environment for its products. The simple truth here might be that consumers are frankly not interested in meat substitutes.
The evidence is in the financials. The one bit of forward-looking commentary that Beyond Meat did provide in its second-quarter results was estimates for third-quarter revenue. Expectations were for net revenues of $68 million to $73 million. That would mark a decline from Q3 2024's revenues of $81 million.
Overall, this seems like a risky stock, given its performance, annual net losses, and declining amount of capital on hand.