Mizuho Securities cut its stock price target on Beyond Meat Inc. BYND to $12 from $20 on Friday and said material headwinds persist for the maker of plant-based substitute meat products. That’s after Beyond Meat reported a fiscal first-quarter net loss of $59 million, or 92 cents a share, this week, compared with a net loss of $100.5 million, or $1.58 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue declined 16% to $92.2 million from $109.5 million a year ago. But sales exceeded analysts’ expectations, and Beyond Meat offered encouraging revenue guidance. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average a net loss of $1.01 a share on revenue of $91.7 million. Mizhuo analysts led by John Baumgartner said the quarter was largely as expected and reflected benefits from cost cuts. But revenue improvement is heavily tied to distribution of new products, increasing marketing and lowering prices. “Our confidence is low that such initiatives can materially improve BYND’s most pressing issues; repeat purchase & lack of new trial,” he wrote in a note to clients. Management is planning new protein launches including a plant-based “chicken” and new frozen products along with a new type of burger, while distribution of its jerky product is moving in-house as excess inventory needs to be reduced. “Street expectations are low, but execution risk remains high,” the analyst wrote. Mizuho has a neutral rating on the stock, which is down 17% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 8%.
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