Beyond Meat stock dropped nearly 5% in morning trading

Beyond Meat stock dropped nearly 5% in morning trading after Piper Sandler downgraded the company to an underweight rating.

Shares of Beyond Meat Inc. took a hit Thursday, after Piper Sandler analyst Michael Lavery turned bearish on the plant-based meat company, citing a weaker growth outlook and concern the outlook for foodservice sales may be overly optimistic.

Lavery downgraded the stock to underweight, after being at neutral for the past eight months. He cut his price target to $95, which is 14% below Wednesday's closing price, from $120.

"Beyond is an early leader in plant-based meat, but we believe its current all-channel retail momentum lags consensus expectations, and our foodservice estimates may be high, too," Lavery wrote in a note to clients.

He estimates that the company's U.S. retail sales fell by about 10% in the third quarter, with multi-outlet with convenience store channel sales down 8% and natural channel sales down 27%.

"Beyond's retail sales declines are worse than all of its food peers in our coverage besides B&G Foods," Lavery wrote. He rates B&G at neutral.