McDonald’s ‘McPlant’ news scared Beyond Meat investors, analyst says

Beyond Meat shares surged as much as 28% on Monday after hours of trading following the publication of disappointing third quarter results, ending a frantic day of trading for the volatile stock.

McDonald’s announcement of an herbal line called “McPlant” has caused some confusion among investors as to whether Beyond would be a supplier to America’s largest restaurant chain in terms of sales. The company made the meatless burger patty for a McDonald’s test in Ontario.

The fast food giant declined to provide CNBC with details of its suppliers for upcoming products.

“We have a relationship with Beyond Meat, where they have supported us in our Canadian trial market,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla. “We haven’t made a decision yet on how we’re going to be and which vendors are supporting our global rollout, so I don’t want to comment on that.”

But a spokesperson for Beyond said in a statement to CNBC that the company has co-created a meatless patty with McDonald’s that will be available as part of McPlant.

On the Beyond earnings conference call Monday night, JP Morgan analyst Ken Goldman told Beyond CEO Ethan Brown that he thinks Brown “scares people a little bit” because he doesn’t give investors of substantial details on what could be a major source of growth for Beyond.

Responding to Goldman, Brown said that in his own observation, McDonald’s might have wanted to keep the spotlight on their investor day and announcing Beyond as a supplier could have disrupted that focus. He also said he would wait until he worked with McDonald’s before making any further comments on Beyond’s role at McPlant.

“I’ll say this: Everything we’ve said is true,” Brown said. Beyond has developed a “very long-term” relationship with McDonald’s, including creating the burger that will be part of McPlant, he said, adding that it is up to the chain to decide the extent of the collaboration.