Beyond Meat and Else Nutrition hit by November share slide

Shares in Beyond Meat were down 8.7 per cent to $64.61, shares in Else Nutrition down 19 per cent to CAD$1.18, and shares in HelloFresh down 13.7 per cent to €83.72.

Shares in Beyond Meat fell 18.7 per cent to $64.61 this week, according to the FutureFoodFinance FoodTech Index

Shares in one of the poster childs of the plant-based movement have dropped nearly 30 per cent in November and 44 per cent year to date.

The fall comes amid a general fall in plant-based products and Beyond Meat reporting disappointing third-quarter numbers with Wall Street questioning its growth prospects.

Sales of plant-based meat in the US suffered a near two per cent year-on-year drop in September.

According to figures reported by SPINS, the US retail group, in the four weeks to October 3, sales of plant-based products drooped 1.8 per cent on the year.

Boss Ethan Brown attributed several reasons to its results, including customers making less frequent trips to the site and cooers having less interest in healthy options, as all as flagging up the increased competition.

Earlier this month several brokers cut their targets for the stock.

“We view the results as further evidence that Beyond’s business is reaching market saturation faster than expected and that the company has deeper problems that won’t be easy to fix,” Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow said.

Rob Dickerson, Jefferies, said: “Given the drop in revenues in the third quarter [and] a still-pressured fourth quarter, revenue growth uncertainty in the near term and into 2022 increases.”

Elsewhere, shares in Else Nutrition fell 19 per cent CAD$1.18, according to the tracker.

The shares are down nearly 40 per cent in the last 90 days.

Here is Simply Wall Street’s take on it.

Simply Wall Street says: "Else Nutrition Holdings wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

"Arguably revenue is our next best option. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

"In the last year Else Nutrition Holdings saw its revenue grow by 213 per cent. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. Given the revenue growth, the share price drop of 49 per cent seems quite harsh.

It adds: "While Else Nutrition Holdings shareholders are down 49 per cent for the year, the market itself is up 28 per cent. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more.

"With the stock down 33 per cent over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance."

And finally shares HelloFresh were down 13.7 per cent to €83.72.