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Beyond Meat rose for the third day in a row on Wednesday as meme traders pounced on the stock.
The food company known for its plant-based burgers and sausages at one point soared 111% in pre-market Wednesday. The stock closed Tuesday at $3.62, but in after-hours trading it rose 77% to more than $6.43 per share.
This is the latest in an unusual week for stocks. Shares rose more than 127% on Monday after Roundhill Investments, a developer of thematic ETFs, added its name to the Roundhill Meme Stocks ETF (MEME).
This decision appears to have had the added effect of spurring a short squeeze in the stock price as investors rushed to cover their positions. More than 63% of tradable shares were sold short, according to FactSet data.
Beyond Meat soared 146% on Tuesday, its best day ever after announcing it would expand distribution in Walmart stores.
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Beyond Meat, performance year-to-date
Beyond Meat’s stock price has long been under pressure. It made its public debut in 2019, and its stock price soared to more than $230 per share, but it has since become a penny stock. The stock price has declined in each of the past five years, falling more than 47% in 2021, 81% in 2022, 27% in 2023, more than 57% in 2024, and more than 3% in 2025.
The latest bad news for the company came last week, when its shares fell more than 67% to end the week at just 65 cents after Beyond Meat announced it had completed a debt transaction.
But this week’s resurgence is reminiscent of the height of the pandemic, when retail traders used online message boards like WallStreetBets to orchestrate moves behind high-risk, aggressive trades.
Bank of America said Beyond Meat was a stock to watch on Reddit in 2021, but it ended the year in the red.
Beyond Meat’s resurgence could be the latest sign of a frothy market that is inexorably rising despite soaring valuations and concerns about a potential AI bubble. In fact, Round Hill shut down the meme ETF at one point due to lack of interest. It returned earlier this month as retail traders returned to the bull market.
After someone on Reddit’s online forum WallStreetBets said they bought 10,000 shares of Beyond Meat for $7.50, one commenter said Wednesday: “You’re already down 7,000 shares, that’s crazy.”
“When BYND stock is coming back, you know the economy is crazy,” another said.
