Piper Sandler downgraded BYND to "nuetral" from "underweight"
The shares of Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) are down 1.8% at $47.75 this morning, following a downgrade from Piper Sandler to "neutral" from "underweight." The analyst also cut its price target to $29 from $50, saying the the competition for plant-based meat substitutes is heating up, while the rollout of the company's products at McDonald's (MCD) across the U.S. is seeing lukewarm expectations.
Piper Sandler is joining a pessimistic brokerage bunch. Coming into today, 10 of the 13 covering analysts considered Beyond Meat stock a "hold," while two more said "sell" or worse. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus target price of $48.13 is a slim 1% discount to BYND's Friday close.
The options pits are similarly bearish, per the equity's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.52 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 12 months. This shows puts outpacing calls overall, with an unusually healthy appetite for the bearish bets.
Options traders today are following suit. Already, 4,745 puts have crossed the tape, which is double the intraday average and more than the 3,074 calls. Most popular by far is the weekly 4/1 47-strike put, where new positions are being opened.
On the charts, March 15 saw BYND log an all-time low of $35.74. While it's distanced itself slightly from this low, the 50-day moving average continues to be a trendline to watch, as it just rejected a rally last week. Beyond Meat stock has shed more than 25% year-to-date.