Beyond Meat announced supply deals with both McDonald's and Yum! Brands
The shares of Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) are up 2.3% at $145.43 at last check -- earlier surging as high as $162.78 -- after the plant-based company announced multi-year supply deals with both McDonald's (MCD) and Yum Brands (YUM). Beyond also reported wider-than-expected fourth-quarter losses per share as well as a revenue miss, which seems to have caught up to it this morning. In response, Canaccord Genuity cut its price target to $155, while no fewer than three other analysts raised their price objectives -- including D.A. Davidson to $145 from $133.
BYND has had a volatile time on the charts these past six months. There were two forays into the $200 area, including one on Jan. 26 that resulted in a record high of $221. And while the shares have pulled back since then, they still boast a 17% year-to-date gain. Now, the $140 level appears to have been a springboard for more roller-coaster action.
On the analyst front, sentiment appears to be overwhelmingly bearish, so today's bull notes should be of no surprise. Of the 17 analysts in coverage, 15 carry a "hold" or worse rating on Beyond Meat stock. Plus, the 12-month consensus price target of $119.31 is around a 17% discount to current levels.
Options traders are chiming in after the event, with options volume running at double what's typically seen at this point. So far, 19,000 calls and 14,000 puts have crossed the tape, with the weekly 2/26 165-strike call seeing the most activity, followed by the 160 call in the same session. This shows plenty of traders betting on more upside for BYND by the contract's expiration today.
Puts have been more popular than usual coming into today, per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.33. This ratio stands higher than all but 1% of readings from the past year, revealing a penchant for puts amongst near-term options traders.