Over the past week, the stock of the meatpacking company has risen sharply several times.
What happened.
Beyond Meat (BYND) stock was up 5.6 percent in Tuesday morning trading after a holiday weekend that saw a new rival about to enter the market.
Kellogg (K) announced it was splitting its company into three parts, with one of the new businesses to be its plant division, which has about $340 million in net sales. Last year, Beyond Meat had sales of less than $465 million.
So what.
The stock market as a whole is up today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising more than 508 points, so that could help lift Beyond Meat, too. Still, the meatpacking company remains severely shorted in equity, with more than 40% of its shares sold short, and meme stock investors have been known to rally to such safe-haven stocks.
The stock was up several days last week, including a two percent gain, but that really helped make up for the more than 80 percent loss in value over the past year.
Now what
Kellogg advertises the offshoot as “a leading, profitable, clean plant products company.” This would be a tough competitor for Beyond Meat, which continues to produce substantial losses despite having been in business for years and coming to define the market early on.
In other words, Beyond Meat’s stock may rise today for reasons beyond the fundamentals of its business, which increasingly looks like it is in trouble and now faces a potentially tough new rival.
