Is Beyond Meat Stock Your Ticket to Becoming a Millionaire?

Investors are always looking for the diamond in the rough, that hidden gem that's going to turn them into millionaires. And, preferably, that seven-figure portfolio is going to come about very quickly, too. But the get rich quick mentality isn't the one that gets most investors into the ranks of millionaires.

Is Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) the exception or just another flash in the pan?

Wall Street has a dual personality

Benjamin Graham, the man who helped train world-famous investor Warren Buffett, used the analogy of Mr. Market. Mr. Market's emotions swing wildly from day to day. Some days, he's reasonable and will sell you stock or buy stock from you at realistic prices. On other days, he may be despondent and sell stock on the cheap. And then there's the days when he's exuberantly happy and he will buy stocks at any price.

Image source: Getty Images.

Essentially, Graham is explaining that Wall Street is driven by emotions. There's another expression that gets to this point as well: Wall Street is a voting machine in the short term and a weighing machine in the long term. You have to figure out if you are paying a price that is reasonable for a business.

Valuation isn't a science and it can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around. There are short cuts, like the price-to-earnings ratio, but sometimes you don't even need to go that far. Beyond Meat's sudden entrance into the ranks of meme stocks is a great example.

Meme stocks are stocks with prices driven shockingly higher thanks to emotions. In the case of Beyond Meat, the stock doubled in price in just a couple of days. Investors seemed to believe that this consumer staples maker was about to become a millionaire-maker business.

What do the numbers say?

A quick check of Beyond Meat's financial results would throw cold water on that view. For starters, the company is bleeding red ink. To be fair, it is an upstart business trying to popularize meat alternatives. It isn't shocking that the company would need to make material investments in the business to grow.

There's just one problem with that view: Beyond Meat's business isn't actually growing. In 2024, the company sold 12% less product in the U.S. retail market, roughly 12% less in the U.S. food service market, nearly 6% less in the international retail space, and roughly 10% less in the international food service space. Overall, Beyond Meat sold 10% less fake meat in 2024.

Those trends continued into 2025, with the company selling 15% less product overall through the first half of the year. Every company tries to put the best possible spin on their financial results, but this is very clearly a struggling business. Sure, when Beyond Meat first brought its meat alternatives to market, the reception was strong. But now consumers are very clearly not as interested in what the company has to offer.

Yet, the stock's price rose dramatically in just a couple of days. But even that didn't last very long, with the shares starting to resume their downtrend fairly quickly. And the risk here is quite large, highlighted by the company having to do a debt exchange that will materially dilute current shareholders. That exchange will also take the company from a 0% interest rate loan to a 7% interest rate loan. That's the kind of move a company makes if it has no other options.

Following up that decision was the announcement that Beyond Meat would be delaying its earnings because it was taking a one-time impairment charge. The charge is related to long-lived assets, which suggests that it is going to write down the value of its brand. Not a shock, given the ongoing declines in demand for Beyond Meat's products.

Beyond Meat is not a diamond in the rough

When you step back and look at the business behind Beyond Meat's stock, you quickly come away with a very negative view of the company's prospects. Most people should try to get rich slowly and over time by buying good companies and holding for the long term. It is very hard to suggest that Beyond Meat is a good company and buying it with the hope of the investment making you a millionaire looks more like gambling than investing at this point in time.

Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Beyond Meat. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.