Beyond Meat’s shares fell sharply after the meat-alternative producer delivered a mixed quarterly earnings report and announced a secondary stock offering.
The stock had soared since Beyond Meat went public three months ago, reaching nine times the IPO price of $25 a share. In trading Tuesday, it fell 10.5% to $198.76, which followed a 14% drop in Monday’s extended session.
On Monday, Beyond Meat reported that sales nearly quadrupled in the second quarter to $67.3 million but it lost $9.4 million, or 24 cents per share, below analysts’ estimates of a loss of 9 cents a share.
The company also revealed that it plans to sell an additional 3.25 million shares in a secondary offering, with 3 million coming from existing shareholders.
The offering will enable insiders to cash in some of their holdings before Beyond Meat’s post-IPO lockup period ends in October but will dilute the per-share value of existing units. The sellers include CEO Ethan Brown and CFO Mark Nelson.
“Venture-backed companies often hold secondary sales, but not so close to the IPO date,” CNBC said, adding that among tech IPOs in recent years, only enterprise data firm Splunk announced a secondary within three months of its IPO, according to FactSet data.
CNBC noted that “nothing about Beyond Meat’s first three months on the market has been typical,” with the company’s market cap jumping from $1.5 billion at its debut to over $13 billion at Monday’s close.
Second-quarter revenue gain exceeded analysts’ expectations of $52.5 million.
“We are very pleased with our second-quarter results which reflect continued strength across our business as evidenced by new foodservice partnerships, expanded distribution in domestic retail channels, and accelerating expansion in our international markets,” Brown said in a news release.
“We believe our positive momentum continues to demonstrate mainstream consumers’ growing desire for plant-based meat products both domestically and abroad,” he added.
Beyond Meat also saw improved margins, income from operations, and gross profit, and predicted revenue would increase 170% for the full year, up from its earlier guidance of 140%.
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