Piper Sandler flags risks to Beyond Meat's tie-up with McDonald's

BYND Cannasoft Enterprises

28/03/2022 15:01

(Updates)
    ** Beyond Meat Inc  BYND.O  falls 0.6% to $48.34 after Piper
Sandler downgrades stock to "underweight" from "neutral"   
    ** Brokerage says a potential nationwide launch of BYND's
"McPlant" burger with McDonald's Corp  MCD.N  may not result in
the boost to shares that was once expected, as skepticism around
U.S. demand for the products grows   
    ** The lack of Beyond Meat branding also poses a risk that
MCD could take production in-house at the end of its 3-year
contract with BYND - Piper Sandler       
    ** Rising competition in the sector as well as the lukewarm
response expected for co's move to push prices below animal
protein will likely weigh on sales - Piper Sandler
    ** Brokerage cuts PT to a Street low of $29 from $50; Stock
has a median PT of $45 and an average "hold" rating, as per
Refinitiv data
    ** BYND forecast annual revenue below estimates last month,
hitting its share price, as it faced stiffer competition 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2UZ5S0
    ** Stock down over 63% in the last 12 months

 (Reporting by Uday Sampath and Subhadeep Chakravarty in
Bengaluru)
 ((subhadeep.chakravarty@thomsonreuters.com))