Plant-based synthetic meat-like product manufacturer Beyond Meat’s stock price is down 45% over last year and 14% for the day after the company’s preliminary net revenue estimate for the third quarter missed the company’s previous planned number by around $30 million.
Early in the company’s history, the fake meat supplier boasted enormous success and was aided by media figures promoting its industry and class of products, meat-like products that do not come from animals.
However, citing everything from COVID-19 and the Delta variant to “challenges in operations,” the Beyond Meat stock price is down nearly 45% today over last year, and 14% so far for the day, following disappointing news about the company’s third quarter revenues.
“Beyond Meat plunged 14% after reporting preliminary net revenue for third quarter of about $106 million,” ZeroHedge reported, noting that the company missed “the estimate of $134.3 million by about 30%, and a huge disappointment to the company’s prior guidance which was $120 million to $140 million.”
The company said “demand was impacted by broader ongoing macro and micro-economic factors” including COVID-19. It also blamed unspecified “challenges in operations that led to unfulfilled orders” and a “decrease in retail orders that persisted longer than expected from a Canadian distributor.”
According to ZeroHedge, “None of this mattered to investors who now see just round after round of excuses from the management team, which will soon be on the fake meat chopping block” unless the company’s sails are righted.
The disappointing news for the fake meat company comes even as the supply chain remains stressed and the economy remains plagued by enormous inflation under the Biden regime. With meat prices on the rise, it appears many Americans would rather pay extra for animal protein or do without it rather than try Beyond Meat’s synthetic plant-based protein products.