Beyond Meat has officially become Beyond Saving…

The one-time pandemic superstar that promised to “save the planet one fake burger at a time” is now trading around $1, down more than 99% from its 2019 peak of $240. Which, fun fact, is about how much a Beyond Burger combo costs at Whole Foods these days (source: trust me bro).

So, what happened? Beyond Meat’s latest “sustainability initiative” seems to be sustainably wiping out its shareholders. The company finalized a debt-for-equity swap, handing bondholders 316 million new shares in exchange for new notes due 2030… meaning, Beyond Meat just bought itself some time… and sold out its shareholders to do it. Creditors got a sweet deal: more time to be repaid and a massive ownership stake in the company. Unfortunately that came with one YUGE catch. Existing investors saw their slice of the “Impossible” burgermaker shrink by more than 300%.

The restructuring gives Beyond Meat some breathing room on roughly $1.3 billion in debt, but it also wiped out what little trust investors had left. The stock which started the year at the $4 mark immediately took a dive and kept sliding into penny-stock purgatory… hovering just below the $1 line.

(Source: New York Post)

And just like when an NFL team continues to get dogwalked every week, things got ugly fast. Four directors suddenly resigned last week (including CEO Ethan Brown himself) only to be replaced overnight. No official reason was given for the shuffle, but “our company’s now worth less than a “Costco hot dog combo meal” seems like a decent guess.

Analysts aren’t exactly hungry for seconds. TD Cowen dropped its price target from $2 to 80 cents, calling it a “Strong Sell.” Bloomberg’s Jennifer Bartashus added that there’s “not a lot to drive enthusiasm”... which in analyst-ese translates to “it’s cooked.”

Beyond’s market cap now sits under $80 million, a crumb compared to its $14 billion valuation back when Wall Street was chasing anything with a “mission.” Sales are projected to fall another 14% this year, down to just $281 million, as the few Americans that were still buying those nasty looking sausages finally decided that pea protein tastes like sh*t.

Remember, at its IPO, Beyond Meat opened at $46 a share and skyrocketed to $239 in a single summer. Partnerships with McDonald’s, KFC, and Dunkin’ were supposed to make it the Tesla of tofu. Instead, it’s looking more like the Fisker of fake meat… once looked at as a disruptor, now another write-off in a bankruptcy filing.

These days, 64% of Beyond Meat’s float is sold short, making it one of the most heavily shorted stocks on the market. Which is fitting… because betting against fake meat might be the realest trade left. Update: Beyond Meat is now up 70% this morning in what looks like a full-blown short squeeze. The hunters just became the hunted.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in McDonald’s and Tesla as mentioned in the article.