Beyond Meat Shares Drop After Earnings Miss, Sales Beat

Beyond Meat Inc BYND shares tumbled in after-hours trading Thursday after the company reported earnings below analysts' expectations on a net loss, even though it beat expectations on quarterly sales by nearly 25%.

Investors were disappointed by the EPS loss of a penny per share. Analysts had expected EPS of positive once cent per share. Still, the plant-based meat company reported fourth quarter sales of $98.5 million, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $79.5 million by 23.9%.

Beyond Meat management was upbeat, and expects to continue sales momentum in the coming year, issuing guidance for fiscal 2020 sales net revenue of $490 million to $510 million, up more than 64% from 2019.

“Our outstanding fourth quarter and full-year 2019 results are a testament to the vitality of the movement that we continue to lead," said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat's President and CEO. "With our simple objective of building a perfect piece of meat from plants, our greater mission is much larger than us and seeks to address some of the key challenges of our time—improving health and nutrition, enhancing the sustainability of our global food supply, while lowering our environmental impact, and promoting animal welfare.”

The company said it expects 2020 gross margin in the range of 33% to 35%. Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of net revenues are expected to be about the same as in 2019, though, as the company said it expects to boost investments in marketing, R&D and international expansion initiatives in 2020.

Beyond Meat got a boost earlier this week when Starbucks Corporation SBUX announced it would begin selling Beyond Meat plant-based breakfast sandwiches in Canadian Starbucks stores starting next week.

Other Highlights

• Net revenues were $98.5 million, an increase of 212%, compared to net revenues of $31.5 million in the year-ago period.
• Gross profit was $33.5 million, or 34% of net revenues, compared to gross profit of $7.9 million, or 25% of net revenues, in the year-ago period.
• Net loss was $0.5 million, or $0.01 per common share, compared to net loss of $7.5 million, or $1.10 per common share in the year-ago period.
• Beyond Meat's stock down 7.7% in after-hours trading to $97.50 per share.

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