Beyond Meat Stock May Be Falling But These Executives Are Making Bank

The internet is full of schadenfreude when it comes to Beyond Meat. Whether it’s coming from meat lovers or stock market media outlets, there is no shortage of coverage about how the company is not meeting Wall Street’s expectations.

But what about the Beyond Meat executives and board members? A closer look reveals that many of them are not only doing just fine, they have made millions of dollars.

Let’s break them down into two groups, those who have left the company and those who have not. The former category is not surprising, the latter is more troubling.

According to multiple sources of stock trade trackers such as InsiderTrades.com, Beyond Meat executives and board members have done very well.

Among those who have left the company include both executives and board members.

Chuck Muth. Muth was the company’s chief growth officer for four years during which he successfully executed the company’s aggressive sales strategy. And he was amply rewarded. From 2019-2021 in total, Muth sold shares valued at over a whopping $62 million. According to InsiderTrades.com Muth still owns stock valued at over $6 million.

Nothing wrong or unethical about this, it’s just a lot of money for one executive, on top of the salary he received, which according to public information, was $365,000 in 2020.

Don Thompson. In 2015, Beyond Meat proudly announced that former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson was joining the board, a move that Fortune described as: “a coup for a small food startup like Beyond Meat.” Thompson is no longer a board member, but he did make a lot of money selling off his Beyond Meat stock.

According to two separate stock trading sites (Insider-monitor.com and wallmine.com) in May 2020, Thompson sold over 350,000 shares for a total value of over $43 million. In March of that same year, Thompson sold stock valued at close to $9 million. All told, Thompson sold over $50 million worth of stock.

Mark Nelson. Beyond Meat’s chief financial officer and treasurer left that role in May 2021, but was to remain on as a consultant until May 2023. From 2019-2020, Nelson sold over $74 million worth of stock, an incredible figure, especially for the company’s top financial officer.

Now let’s look at several current executives and board members.

Biz Stone. The Twitter co-founder is a man who already had enough money to burn (his net worth is estimated at $250 million) but has made additional millions on Beyond Meat stock as a board member. According to Insider-monitor.com, Stone has numerous sales transactions from 2019-2021 adding up to over $22 million in value.

Seth Goldman. The natural foods darling of Honest Tea fame (sold to Coca-Cola) joined Beyond Meat’s board in 2013 and served as chairman from 2015-2020. According to both Insider-monitor.com and Wallmine.com, in 2020, Goldman sold stock valued at over $24 million. Goldman remains a current board member.

Teri Witterman. Beyond’s current chief legal officer has also been selling off a lot of stock some of it very recently. In 2020, Witterman sold over $2 million worth of stock, and just last December she sold another $500,000 worth.

Ethan Brown. What about Beyond Meat’s founder and CEO? He still owns a lot of stock but did sell of over $7 million worth in August of 2019, a few months after the company’s IPO.

Note that these figures do not reflect the net amounts of money made, given taxes, etc.

And none of this is to say that these transactions are in any way unethical or wrong. But it does defy the news accounts that the stock value is dropping and shareholders are losing money. While it’s true the stock has lost a lot of value since the company’s record-breaking IPO in 2019, that doesn’t mean that everyone is a loser.

It’s also troubling to see active executives and board members selling off stock, says Matt Carrington of Bison Ventures who has worked with major plant-based brands such as Worthington Foods, Morningstar Farms, and Gardenburger.

“I don’t blame anyone who has left the company for selling their shares. But particularly for these current, well-compensated directors or executives to sell after an IPO, when their stock restrictions are up, it sends a signal to the market that those with close-in knowledge may believe the company is overvalued or has peaked,” he said.

“There’s an unwritten rule with executives and directors that you don’t sell shares while you’re actively engaged in convincing investors the stock should be worth more,” he added.