Beyond Meat Swings, Pausing Week's Best Rally in U.S. Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- Beyond Meat Inc. swung between gains and losses on Friday as one of the best performing IPOs so far this year showed it may not be invulnerable to trade concerns rattling U.S. stocks.

The stock was little changed at 9:59 a.m in New York, as major averages fell after China indicated a lack of interest in resuming trade negotiations. Beyond Meat had been the best performer in the four days through Thursday among 2,800 companies over $500 million in market value that traded at least 100,000 shares in the past week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The pullback should be welcome news to shorts, who have ratcheted up bets that the gains won’t last. About 43% of the stock’s free float is on loan to short sellers, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners. The stock has more than tripled since its debut two weeks ago.

The stock’s rally this week was fueled by speculation “and not a real assessment” of its prospects, Freedom Finance analyst Erlan Abdikarimov said in an email. “For some time the impulse can last, but this cannot last very long.”

Abdikarimov cut shares to hold from buy on Monday on the stock’s fast post-IPO advance.

--With assistance from Elena Popina.

To contact the reporters on this story: Courtney Dentch in New York at cdentch1@bloomberg.net;Tatiana Darie in New York at tdarie1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Nagi at chrisnagi@bloomberg.net, Brad Olesen

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