Beyond Meat Feeding Frenzy Pushes Value Above $5 Billion

May 16 2019, 2:06 PMMay 16 2019, 2:48 PMMay 16 2019, 2:06 PMMay 16 2019, 2:48 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Beyond Meat Inc. bulls are clearly in control this week, with shares surging for a fourth consecutive day.

The stock rose another 8% on Thursday, rising to $93.60 at 10:19 a.m. in New York, giving the company a market valuation of $5.5 billion. The stock has now seen gains in eight of its only 11 trading sessions as a public company, and has extended its post-IPO surge to 275%. The faux-meat maker’s value is rapidly approaching the $7.2 billion market capitalization of a more traditional meat supplier in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation.

A surge in bearish bets has not stopped buyers from loading up on shares. Beyond Meat’s short interest stands at 43% of shares outstanding on Thursday, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners. The recent IPO is now among the top 20 most-shorted U.S. companies, data show.

See: Beyond Meat’s ‘Absurd’ Valuation Draws First Short Sellers

Beyond Meat is the second-best performing IPO in the U.S. this year, only trailing Shockwave Medical Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has raced ahead of this year’s highly anticipated debuts, leaving Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. behind. Both ride-sharing firms remain in negative territory since coming to market, down 6.7% and 24%, respectively, since their IPOs.