Beyond Meat beat revenue expectations for the fourth quarter
The shares of Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) are surging after the open, last seen up 54.2% to trade at $11.60, after the alternative meat name last night announced earnings results. For the fourth-quarter, Beyond Meat beat revenue estimates, and said it would "steeply reduce" costs in 2024.
There's ample room for a short squeeze, considering the 23.36 million outstanding shares account for 38% of BYND's total available float. At its current pace of trading, it would take shorts more than eight days to buy back their bearish bets.
Analysts are already jumping to adjust their price targets. No fewer than four brokerages raised their price objectives following the event. Coming into today, the average 12-month target price of $6.80 was a 30.3% discount to last night's close, and all 12 covering analysts rated Beyond Meat stock a "hold" or "strong sell." This indicates that even more price-target hikes and/or upgrades could be on the way.
Drilling down today's options activity, traders from both sides of the aisle are chiming in. So far today, 98,000 calls and 66,000 puts have been exchanged, or 27 times the volume that's typically seen at this point. New positions are opening at the top five most popular contracts, led by the weekly 3/1 6-strike call.
Today's bull gap sent the security to a five-month high of $12.12, and it just moved above its 200-day moving average for the first time since August 2023. The pop also helped BYND reclaim its year-to-date breakeven mark, now up 24.6% in 2024, though it remains down 37.7% year over year.