Beyond Meat Stock Hits All-Time Low. Inflation Bites Plant-Based Industry.

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Beyond Meat

shares hit an all-time low Monday, falling for the fifth consecutive day and dragging down other plant-based stocks as inflation has led consumers’ to shun the higher-priced products.

Beyond Meat

(ticker: BYND) has seen better days. In fact, the stock has tumbled 74% this year and a whopping 93% from its all-time closing high of $234.90 in July 2019, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

On Monday, Beyond Meat’s stock fell 5.6% to $17.26. It went public at $25 in May 2019. Other plant-based companies like

Oatly Group

(OTLY) and

Calavo Growers

fell 2% and 0.6% on Monday, and have dropped 63% and 18% this year.

So what’s happening in the world of plant-based meats? One word: inflation.

Beyond Meat reported second-quarter results back in early August. Not only did the company post a wider loss and revenue below what analysts were expecting, it also gave a downbeat outlook for the full year due to the inflationary pressures on its consumers.

“The second quarter of 2022 saw a sequential contraction in U.S. household penetration of plant-based meat for the first time in over four years,” Beyond Meat’s Chief Executive Ethan Brown said in the company’s last earnings conference call. “As consumers are expressly seeking value, we believe that high inflation and the sector’s premium pricing relative to animal protein is largely, if not fully, determining.”

And it doesn’t look like inflation is going away anytime soon. Consumer prices climbed at an 8.3% annual pace in August, according to the Labor Department. Leading the charge for high prices were the shelter, food, and medical care categories, which saw some of the fastest price gains over the month. Specifically, the cost of food has jumped 11.4% over the past year, which is the largest 12-month jump since May 1979.

Not only are food prices high across the board, but Beyond Meat’s products are more expensive overall than regular animal products. CEO Brown said last month that the average retail price of ground beef was $4.90 a pound, while Beyond Meat’s ground beef was going for around $8.35 a pound.

“That is a very difficult proposition when consumers have very high levels of  inflation going on, and their buying power in grocery is declining,” Brown said.

Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]