BYND Stock Slumps 24% as Beyond Meat Q1 2022 Revenue Misses Estimates

The American company that produces plant-based meat substitutes Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ: BYND) has published its financial performance report for the first quarter that ended April 2. Per the report, the El Segundo, California-based company said its Net revenues came in at $109.5 million, an increase of 1.2% year-over-year. However, this revenue figure fell short of analysts’ projects of $112.3 million.

While the company reported a gross profit of $0.2 million, or a gross margin of 0.2% of net revenues, its Net loss came in at $100.5 million, or $1.58 per common share. Net loss as a percentage of net revenues was -91.8%.

The performance of the company in the first quarter got investors agitated as the recorded net loss was miles wider than the $27.3 million, or 43 cents per share recorded in this same period a year earlier. The rocky performance of the firm was attributed to the cost-intensive measures it had to adapt to back some of its strategic launches.

“In the first quarter, we made good progress against our goal of building tomorrow’s global protein company. Whether furthering strategic partnerships in the restaurant industry, the market success of our first product collaboration with PepsiCo, or the continued acclaim awarded to our products here in the US and EU, we continue to lay a robust foundation for our long-term growth,” said Beyond Meat President and CEO Ethan Brown,

Brown expressed optimism that the decisions made in the first quarter will aid future boost in sales.

“Though we recognize that the decisions we are making today in support of our long-run ambition have contributed to challenging near-term results, including a sizable though temporary reduction in gross margin as we took cost-intensive measures to support important strategic launches, we are confident in the future we are building while advancing our mission to bring plant-based meats and their attendant health, climate, natural resource, and animal welfare benefits to consumers around the world,” he added.

BYND Revenue Miss and Investor’s Reaction

Ahead of the earnings report, the shares of Beyond Meat (BYND) closed Wednesday’s trading session down 13.83% to $26.17. While the initial slump was fueled by an unexplainable jittery, the 23.96% drop in the Pre-market is evidenced that the firm’s investors lost confidence in its outlook for the short term.

The launch of the company’s plant-based meat jerky was unprecedentedly large-scale and the executives said this affected its production efficiency which further weighed in on revenue.

Despite the poor performance in BYND revenue figures, the firm is not losing sight of the bigger picture as executives assured investors that this current performance will be the low point for the company this fiscal year. Despite being known for consistent losses, the firm, in a bid to ameliorate the bearish sentiment, Beyond Meat reiterated its full-year revenue forecast of $560 million to $620 million.