Beyond Meat stock quickly turns negative today after meme rally pushed shares up by double digits

BYND -3.10%

Update Tuesday, 12:15 p.m.:

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Alternative meat company Beyond Meat saw its stock drop almost 5% in early trading on Tuesday after a significant rally had pushed shares up a day earlier and into premarket trading.

As of around noon, the stock was trading at $1.28 a share after opening at $1.40. The volatility is another sign that the heavily shorted stock is being embraced by meme stock traders, with some seeking to lock in profits after shares rise. As of this writing, the stock is still up over 47% over the past five days.

Original story:

Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the company’s stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday.

As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Here’s what you need to know.

A volatile December

The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one.

Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next week’s potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and growing fears of an AI bubble.

The broader markets seemed to be impacted by the same concerns, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending yesterday down 0.9%, the Nasdaq down 0.38%, and the S&P 500 down 0.53% according to data compiled by Reuters.

Yet despite the risk-averse stance taken by many investors yesterday, some traders in so-called meme stocks seemed to be throwing caution to the wind.

Meme stock investors go crazy for Beyond Meat

While cryptocurrencies and the broader markets were selling off yesterday as mainstream investors’ appetite for risk diminished, meme stock investors were bullish on their latest stock darling, Beyond Meat.

BYND shares surged 36.48% yesterday, closing at $1.34 per share. That’s a level that Beyond Meat’s stock has not traded at since November 11, according to Yahoo Finance data.

It’s also just the latest surge for Beyond Meat shares in the latter part of this year.

In October, the company’s stock price surged from $0.52 per share to $7.69 per share over about a week after it signed a partnership agreement with Walmart.

However, as the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meat’s stock price surge seemed to have been primarily driven by meme stock traders who had found a new favorite stock.

After its quick rise, BYND shares sank back down to well below $1 per share in the final weeks of November.

Now the shares are soaring again.

Yesterday, the company’s stock price was up 36.4% and today, in premarket trading, as of the time of this writing, BYND shares are up another 12.6%—but why?

As the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meat did not have any material changes to its business or financials in the past day. That means speculation among meme stock traders is likely the main driver of the stock’s higher price. This speculation also suggests that, unlike cryptocurrency traders, not all investors are risk-averse right now.

Beyond Meat has still had a horrible 2025

Despite Beyond Meat’s December stock price surge, investors in the alternative meat company have not seen great returns this year.

As of yesterday’s close, BYND shares were still down more than 64% year to date. In November, the company reported its Q3 2025 results, and they left much to be desired.

For the quarter, net revenues were down 13.3% year-over-year to $70.2 million. The company’s gross profit was $7.2 million—nearly half of the $14.3 million in gross profit it brought in the same quarter a year earlier.

The disconnect between these fundamentals and this week’s surging stock price suggests that risk-taking by meme-stock traders is the primary driver of BYND’s most recent advance.

Beyond Meat isn’t the only meme stock to have gained over the past several days.

Other meme stock favorites have also risen over the past five days, including

• GameStop (NYSE: GME)—up 13%

• AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC)—up 6.8%

• Opendoor Technologies (Nasdaq: OPEN)—up 5.7%.

This post originally appeared at fastcompany.comSubscribe to get the Fast Company newsletter: http://fastcompany.com/newsletters