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The fake-meat industry may be lacking teeth of late, but investors rewarded Beyond Meat Inc.’s stock on Thursday, promptly propelling it 16% in extended trading on better-than-expected quarterly results.
Beyond Meat
BYND,
pleasantly surprised investors with fourth-quarter sales and earnings that topped analysts’ forecasts and offered a pause to the ongoing storyline that sales of plant-based meat products have cooled since enjoying a surge in popularity during 2020.
“Our fourth-quarter results clearly demonstrate delivery against our strategy and plan, including solid sequential progress on margin recovery and operating expense reduction, and continued inventory drawdown,” Beyond Chief Executive Ethan Brown said in a statement announcing the numbers.
In a conference call with analyst late Thursday, Brown credited an austerity program for the quarterly turnaround, underlining “driving margin recovery and operating expense reduction” by $12 million. One example of savings will be the consolidation of real estate holdings that bring its local employees under one roof at a central office in Los Angeles. Annual capital expenditures are expected to be slashed in half, to about $30 million to $35 million, the company said.
Beyond reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $66.9 million, or $1.05 a share, compared with a net loss of $80.4 million, or $1.27 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were $1.05 a share.
Revenue fell 21% to $79.9 million, from $100.7 million a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average a net loss of $1.18 a share on revenue of $75.8 million.
Beyond’s fiscal 2023 revenue guidance of $375 million to $415 million was roughly in line with the $391.4 million predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.
Shares of Beyond have crumbled 65% over the past year but have rallied of late, while the broader S&P 500 index
SPX,
has dipped 6% over the past 12 months. Beyond shares were flat in Thursday’s regular session, closing at $17.14 a share.
Beyond’s surprise results were a counter-narrative for an industry jolted by slackening sales and mounting layoffs at market leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods Inc.
