Beyond Meat (BYND) stock rocketed higher on Monday despite a lack of news from the company that produces a plant-based meat alternative. There are no new press releases or filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that explain why BYND stock is up today. Even so, that doesn’t mean the company’s shares have rallied for no reason.
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Instead, it appears that Beyond Meat stock is the target of a short squeeze. BYND stock has 76.75 million outstanding shares and a float of 63.25 million. The company’s stock is also highly shorted, with the short percentage of outstanding shares at 51.58% and the short percentage of float at 54.01%. Investors will note that roughly 31.12 million shares of BYND stock are shorted, based on last month’s data.
With such a high short interest, it makes sense that Beyond Meat would be the target of a short squeeze. A short squeeze occurs when short sellers are forced to buy shares they’ve borrowed. This requires them to buy back shares to cover their positions, which causes the price of the stock to increase alongside heavy trading.
Beyond Meat Stock Movement Today
Beyond Meat stock was up 58.77% in pre-market trading on Monday, following a 24.15% rally on Friday. However, the stock is still down 82.83% year-to-date and 89.74% over the past 12 months.
Beyond Meat stock also experienced heavy trading today, as more than 129 million shares changed hands. That’s well above the company’s three-month daily average of 39.05 million units.
Is Beyond Meat Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Beyond Meat is Moderate Sell, based on three Hold and five Sell ratings over the past three months. With that comes an average BYND stock price target of $2.20, representing a potential 240.77% upside for the shares.
