Beyond Meat Jump Hurts Short Sellers, Sets Up for a Squeeze
- Shares surged after the company reported quarterly earnings
- BYND has high borrow fees and a crowded short position: S3
Beyond Meat burgers.
Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Beyond Meat Inc. jumped as much as 61% in intraday trading Wednesday — its best one-day move since 2019. The surge is setting traders who have bets against the stock up for a lot of pain.
Short sellers are down nearly $74 million in paper losses, according to data from S3 Partners LLC. The growing value of positions against Beyond Meat also puts traders at risk of a short squeeze, a phenomenon where short sellers are forced to buy back the stock to unload their losing positions. The short covering drives the company’s share price higher, adding further pressure to contrarian traders.