By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com -- Shares of Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) fell more than 9% in extended trading after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings, missing analyst expectations.
The plant-based meat company announced a loss per share of $1.27 on revenue of $100.7 million. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated a loss per share of 70 cents on revenue of $101.11 million.
Revenue decreased 1.2% year-over-year compared to $101.9 million in the same period last year, which the company put down to "temporary disruption in U.S. retail growth, for our brand and the broader category."
"In 2021 we saw strong growth in our international channel net revenues, as well as sporadic yet promising signs of a resumption of growth in U.S. foodservice channel net revenues as COVID-19 variants peaked and declined," said Beyond Meat President and CEO Ethan Brown.
"The investments we made in our team, infrastructure, and capabilities across the U.S., EU, and China, as well as extensive product scaling activities for key strategic partners, weighed heavily on operating expenses and gross margin during a fourth quarter and year that were already impacted by lower than expected volumes. However, we believe these investments will be instrumental in driving our long-term growth," he added.
Looking ahead, the company said it continues to be impacted by "near-term uncertainty related to COVID-19 and its potential impact including on demand levels, labor availability and supply chain disruptions."
The company sees net revenues in the range of $560 million to $620 million for 2022, an increase of 21% to 33% compared with 2021. They added that the outlook assumes reasonable containment of Covid-19 infection rates both in the U.S. and abroad.