JPMorgan Says Beyond Meat ‘Beyond Our Price Target,’ Cramer Highlights ‘Irrational’ Move

June 11, 2019

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Courtesy of Benzinga.

JPMorgan Says Beyond Meat 'Beyond Our Price Target,' Cramer Highlights 'Irrational' Move

The meat alternative maker Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ: BYND) has seen its stock skyrocket 600 percent since its initial public offering, prompting JPMorgan to say shares are “beyond our price target,” CNBC reported.

The Analyst

Ken Goldman downgraded Beyond Meat rating from Overweight to Neutral with a price target lifted from $120 to $121

The Thesis

JPMorgan’s revised stance on Beyond Meat’s stock is “purely a valuation call,” CNBC quoted the analyst as saying in a downgrade note.

The sell-side firm had previously said the stock’s valuation would at some point properly reflect its “extraordinary” revenue and profit potential.

“We think this day has arrived,” Goldman said.

JPMorgan was the lead underwriter in Beyond Meat’s IPO, which implies some investors may find the downgrade surprising, CNBC said.

Yet research analysts and investment bankers do work in separate units — and laws prevent the the two sides from communicating with each other.

Beyond Meat’s stock hasn’t just exceeded JPMorgan’s price target; the stock has traded north of every analyst on Wall Street, according to S3 Partners, CNBC said.

This resulted in short sellers losing more than $400 million since the company’s IPO.

Cramer: ‘Irrational’ Move

Beyond Meat posted a revenue beat in its first quarter, which was followed by a $3-billion appreciation in market value, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street” Tuesday.

The “irrational” move in the stock isn’t uncommon, but Cramer said he’s “glad Ken Goldman stopped it.”

One of the few ways to make a Beyond Meat burger taste great is to “put a slab of bacon on it,” Cramer joked.

This may not necessarily matter, as “millennials, vegans and vegetarians turn out to be stock buyers” and they focus on individual stocks like Beyond Burger, the CNBC host said.