(Bloomberg) -- Beyond Meat Inc. shares are no longer worth buying, according to Wall Street.
The faux meat-maker was downgraded to market perform from outperform at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc., losing its last bullish analyst rating after a stratospheric gain of just over 400% since the company listed last month. Beyond Meat shares were down 2.9% at 4:14 a.m. in New York trading before U.S exchanges open.
“The downgrade is driven by valuation considerations as the stock has traded in a highly volatile manner since its IPO likely due to its limited public float,” analyst Alexia Howard wrote in a note. While Beyond Meat is one of the frontrunners in the still-growing plant-based meat category, there is limited upside left in the shares, she said.
Howard's downgrade follows JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Ken Goldman cutting his rating on Tuesday, which sent shares tumbling 25%. He had been the final bullish analyst among the underwriters of Beyond Meat's IPO. Goldman also said his downgrade was purely on valuation grounds.
The shares closed at $126.04 on Tuesday compared with the $25 they were sold at in May's IPO. They had risen 572% through to the end of trading on Monday following a two-day frenzy driven by expectation-busting earnings which now appears to have prompted a wave of analyst caution. Beyond Meat now has nine analyst ratings overall, all holds, and an average price target of $96.
--With assistance from Gaurav Panchal.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Unsted in London at sunsted@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Paul Jarvis
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