Beyond Meat surges to nearly 500% gain since its IPO pricing
- Beyond Meat's stock has continued to soar after its first-quarter earnings topped expectations on Thursday.
- Shares are now trading more than 475% above their May initial-public-offering price of $25.
- Wall Street has taken note and reevaluated price targets and expectations for the company.
- Watch Beyond Meat trade live.
Beyond Meat has continued to climb at a torrid pace since releasing its first earnings report as a public company on Thursday.
Shares were up more than 11% early Monday, trading above $150 apiece. They have now gained more than 475% since pricing at $25 on May 1.
The gains are inflict more pain on short-sellers, who saw their losses climb above $150 million when the stock climbed above $100 a share. On Friday, the stock closed at $138.65.
After Thursday's close, the plant-based burger company reported revenue slightly above analyst expectations, as well as a loss that was narrower than anticipated. The results caused Wall Street analysts to reassess their price targets and valuations for the El Segundo, California-based company.
Credit Suisse's Robert Moskow and Jacob Nivasch raised their sales forecast and upped their price target to $125 from $70 while JPMorgan's Kevin Grundy hiked his target to $120 from $97.
Demand has soared for plant-based meat alternatives, and industry sales could exceed $100 billion in the next 15 years, wrote Ken Goldman and James Allen of JPMorgan in a note, with Beyond Meat claiming a $15 billion piece of the pie.