As the saying goes…

Food on the Move: FFF’s weekly roundup of listed FoodTech’s movers & shakers

“As goes January, so goes the year” is an old stock market adage based on the supposition that January’s performance sets the tone for the rest of the year.  A good January, a good year - or so the theory goes.  So, with the month all but done and dusted, it’s time to see if January 2023 has been a good month, at least in terms of more ‘up’ weeks (when the number of risers in FFF’s listed FoodTech space outnumber fallers) than ‘down’ weeks.  A quick reminder of the score so far…

• Week ended 06 Jan 2023: 31 risers, 15 fallers and three non-movers – 1-0 to the ‘Ups’
• Week ended 13 Jan 2023: 35 risers, 11 fallers and three non-movers – 2-0 to the ‘Ups’
• Week ended 20 Jan 2023: 24 risers, 24 fallers and one non-mover – a score draw

Unassailable lead for the ‘Ups’ with one week to spare then. But in the interests of good housekeeping, the week ended 27 January was…another win for the ‘Ups’ – 30 risers, 17 fallers and two non-movers.  The ‘Ups’ have it by a country mile.  Time to sit back and let the January Effect, well, take effect.  If only it was that simple…    

As for this week’s movers and shakers, top of the tree with a 63% rise was AppHarvest (APPH). The vertical farmer’s shares finished the week at US$2.64. That’s more than five times higher than the level they were trading at as recently as mid-December.  APPH has featured heavily in Food on the Move recently: last week, the company announced that “commercial shipments from first harvest at new Richmond, Ky., 60-acre high-tech indoor farm” had commenced; the week before that, we speculated if APPH was benefiting from a short squeeze (short sellers scrambling for stock) after the shares soared 121% on the back of no news.

This time round? Another strong rise and another week of no announcements, although the Motley Fool had something to say: “The indoor tech farming company is now up an astonishing 271% year to date after a horrendous performance in 2022. The stock is likely moving higher because of a major production announcement for its new facilities, along with a short squeeze on its depressed stock…” The commentator went on to point out that “AppHarvest's stock is heavily shorted, with a short interest estimated to be above 20%...Highly shorted small-cap stocks can lead to volatile trading when a short squeeze occurs…This is likely occurring with AppHarvest's stock right now.”  With an estimated 20% of outstanding stock still on the short list, this could be a long short squeeze…

Beyond Meat (BYND) is another former darling of the FoodTech space that can lay claim to having had a good week – the shares put on 22.5% to close at US$18.51.  As with APPH, no press release from BYND and, as with APPH, shares in BYND have had an excellent month – as at 6 January they were exchanging hands for as little as US$12 a pop. So…

No news out + 50% plus gains = another short squeeze?

The Motley Fool seems to think so.  Earlier in the month, it published “Short Interest for Beyond Meat Remains High. Is There Hope Left for the Stock?”  The article goes on to say: “Beyond Meat…has fallen 50% in value since its initial public offering in 2019, and 95% from its all-time high. It hasn't been a good investment despite the hype around plant-based meat alternatives. And there are no shortage of bearish investors out there expecting the business to fail…There is an increasing number of people who are betting against the success of Beyond Meat and who are shorting the stock.”  The question is this, are the shorters now looking beyond Beyond Meat and wanting out?

Elsewhere, shares in Calyxt (CLXT) tacked on another 28% to end the week at US$0.34.   Investors still warming to the news that the plant-based synthetic bio specialist is merging with gene editor Cibus to “create a new industry-leading company that combines the two pioneers in agriculture-based gene editing and establishes one of the world's most sophisticated facilities for trait development and next-generation plant breeding.” Sounds SuperCALYXTfragilisticexpialidocious!