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Ethan Brown, founder and chief executive officer of Beyond Meat Inc., center, rings the opening bell during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, U.S., on Thursday, May 2, 2019.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Beyond Meat‘s stock continues to skyrocket and even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts are lagging far behind.
Shares of the alternative meat company have risen more than 600% since its initial public offering of $25 a share, hitting a high of $186.43 a share in trading on Monday. (It has since come back from that level and was last at $166.20, still up 20% for the day.) Beyond Meat reported first-quarter results on Thursday that were stronger than expected, telling investors that it expects revenues to more than double over the next year.
There are eight Wall Street firms covering Beyond Meat’s stock and, after the company’s earnings, five of them raised their price targets.
But even the highest price target – Credit Suisse at $125 a share – was immediately outpaced when Beyond Meat’s stock began trading on Monday. Beyond Meat shares soared toward its third best day of trading ever, climbing more than 25% at one point.
Beyond Meat’s stock is over 65% above the average Wall Street 12-month price target of $103.85 a share.
Beyond Meat “issued revenue guidance for 2019 that exceeded our estimate by 11% due to distribution gains and velocity growth,” Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow told investors on Friday. His firm’s price target nearly doubled, as Credit Suisse raised it from $70 a share to $125 a share.
“At some point, the extraordinary revenue and profit potential embedded in [Beyond Meat] will be priced in,” J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman told investors on Friday. Goldman’s forecast is $120.
But “as long as Street forecasts fail to properly reflect BYND’s remarkable potential, we remain Overweight,” Goldman added.
Here is the full list of analysts covering Beyond Meat’s stock and their price targets in descending order:
- Credit Suisse – Robert Moskow: Neutral rating, $125 price target
- J.P. Morgan – Ken Goldman: Overweight rating, $120 price target
- Bernstein – Alexia Howard: Outperform rating, $107 price target
- Jefferies – Kevin Grundy: Hold rating, $105 price target
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch – Bryan Spillane: Neutral rating, $101 price target
- Consumer Edge – Chase West: Equalweight rating, $91 price target
- Goldman Sachs – Adam Samuelson: Neutral rating, $76 price target
- William Blair – Jon Andersen: Market perform rating, no price target
— With reporting by Michael Bloom
