Piper Sandler downgraded BYND to "underweight" from "neutral"
The shares of the popular vegan brand Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) are down 3.3% to trade at $107.18 at last check, after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "neutral," with a price-target cut to $95 from $120. The analyst in coverage stated “Beyond is an early leader in plant-based meat, but we believe its current all-channel retail momentum lags consensus expectations, and our foodservice estimates may be high, too."
On the charts, Beyond Meat stock is looking to wrap up its fifth week of losses in the last six, guided lower by the 30-day moving average. Down 14.1% year-to-date, the equity is at its lowest level since mid-May.
Ahead of today's bear note, four of the 15 analysts in coverage carried a "strong buy," with nine a tepid "hold," and two a "sell" or worse. It's also worth noting that the 12.73 million shares sold short make up 22.6% of the stock's available float, or roughly six days' worth of pent-up buying power.
Elsewhere, the options pits have been much more pessimistic than usual. This is per BYND's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.90 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than 98% of readings from the past year. This shows a strong penchant for long calls of late.
Today, options traders have been quick to chime in, with puts popular. So far, 6,059 calls and 8,481 puts have crossed the tape. The most active by far is the September 105 put, followed by the 108 put in the same monthly series, with new positions being opened at both.
Now looks like a good time to weigh in on Beyond Meat stock's next move with options. The stock is seeing attractively priced premiums at the moment, per the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 43%, which sits in just the 4th percentile of its annual range. Furthermore, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a 97 out of 100, meaning BYND has exceeded option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.