Denny's will expand the launch of Beyond Meat's plant-based burger to 1,700 locations
Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) is bucking the broadmarket trend today with a 7.1% pop to trade at $127.92 after the faux-meat producer announced that Denny's (DENN) would be widening its launch of its plant-based burger to 1,700 locations in the U.S. and Canada, following a well-received trial run in Los Angeles.
The news has options bulls taking a bit out of BYND, with 111,000 calls across the tape so far -- 1.3 times the intraday average -- compared to just 31,000 puts. The weekly 1/31 130-strike call is the most popular, with positions being sold to open here. This suggests that some traders expect the equity to hit or move above the $130 region by the contract's expiration this Friday.
This preference for bullish bets isn't unusual. In fact, during the past 10 days 203,617 calls have exchange hands, which is more than double the 89,148 puts traded during the same time period.
A note from BofA Global Research also came in, giving shares a boost after the analyst lifted its price objective to $126 from $90. The consensus 12-month price target of $108.41 is still at a roughly 15% discount to current levels, though, and only three in coverage consider BYND a "strong buy," while the other nine say "hold" or worse, which could lead to a round of equity boosting upgrades, should this positive price action continue.
That could be soon, considering Beyond Meat has already tacked on 69.4% this year alone. Plus, recent support has emerged at both the ascending 10-day moving average and the 100-day moving average, which BYND climbed north of after a lengthy period south of here earlier this month.
