With a number of high-profile multi-billion dollar M&A moves in the space of late, stocks in the nutrition, diet, and health food sector have been attracting a lot of interest from professional investors thus far in 2020. It shouldn’t come as a shock to see investor interest in the space given the innovative nature of this landscape over recent years and some of the prominent acquisitions we have seen for stocks in the space.
Today, we want to look at three names in the sector that deserve special focus: WW International Inc (NASDAQ:WW), Nightfood Hldg Inc (OTCMKTS:NGTF), and Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND).
WW International Inc (NASDAQ:WW) recently announced that Jennifer Dulski will join the WW Board of Directors, effective as of February 27, 2020. This comes on the heels of news of an extended partnership with Oprah Winfrey into 2025.
According to the release, Jennifer served in leadership roles at Facebook, Google and Yahoo!, as well as founder, CEO and COO roles at both early stage and scaling startups. She also has more than a decade of board experience, serving on both public and private corporate boards and non-profit boards.
WW International Inc (NASDAQ:WW) frames itself as a company that provides weight management services worldwide. The company operates in four segments: North America, Continental Europe, United Kingdom, and Other.
It provides a range of products and services comprising nutritional, activity, behavioral, and lifestyle tools and approaches. The company offers various digital subscription products to wellness and weight management business, which provide interactive and personalized resources that allow users to follow its weight management program via its Web-based and mobile app products, including personal coaching products; and allows members to support each other by sharing their experiences with other people on weight management and wellness journeys.
Further, it provides various products, including bars, snacks, cookbooks, kitchen tools, and other products. Additionally, the company licenses its trademarks and other intellectual property in food, beverages, and other consumer products and services. It offers products through its e-commerce platform, magazine subscriptions, publishing, and third-party advertising in publications; and through Websites and sales from the By Mail product.
As noted above, WW recently announced that Jennifer Dulski will join the WW Board of Directors, effective as of February 27, 2020.
Even in light of this news, WW hasn’t really done much of anything over the past week, with shares logging no net movement over that period.
WW International Inc (NASDAQ:WW) managed to rope in revenues totaling $348.6M in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of -4.7%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($239.2M against $365.8M, respectively).
Nightfood Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:NGTF) recently announced that pregnancy care providers have begun recommending Nightfood to their pregnant clients, and the Company intends to aggressively pursue and serve this valuable market segment. The stock has been aggressively pushing to the upside thus far in 2020 as the company’s dramatic growth potential works its way onto the radar of market participants.
According to the release, the link between pregnancy and ice cream cravings is well documented. Pregnant women have specific nutritional needs, which happen to be tightly correlated with the unique benefits of Nightfood’s formulation. Extra calcium, magnesium, zinc, fiber, and protein are all recommended, while sugars should be kept down. In addition, Nightfood has ingredients to minimize heartburn, a major issue, especially in the second and third trimesters. No other ice cream on the market shares these nutritional qualities with Nightfood.
Nightfood Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:NGTF) is a disruptor targeting the $9.5 trillion global food and beverage market, and the $50 billion US nighttime snack market.
After manufacturing their first pint in early 2019, Nightfood secured ice cream distribution in multiple Top-10 supermarket chains in the United States, with concentrations in the Carolinas, Mid-Atlantic, the upper Midwest, and New England.
Management has also begun to focus on distribution of Nightfood sleep-friendly ice cream in hotels across the United States, and is currently available in certain locations of chains such as Fairfield Inn & Suites (Marriott), Hilton Garden Inn (Hilton), Staybridge Suites (InterContinental Hotels Group), and Residence Inn (Marriott).
On Feb 8, 2019, it was announced that Nightfood ice cream won the 2019 Product of the Year award in the ice cream category in a Kantar survey of over 40,000 consumers. On June 26, 2019, Nightfood was named Best New Ice Cream in the 2019 World Dairy Innovation Awards.
Over 80% of Americans snack regularly at night, resulting in an estimated 700M+ nighttime snack occasions weekly, and an annual spend on night snacks of over $50 billion dollars, the majority of it on options that are understood to be both unhealthy, and disruptive to sleep quality.
Scientific research indicates these unhealthy nighttime cravings are driven by human biology. Willpower is also weakest at night, contributing to unhealthy night snacking behavior, and the majority of night snackers report feeling both guilty and out-of-control when it comes to their nighttime snacking.
Because unhealthy night snacking is biologically driven, and not a trend or a fad, management believes the category of nighttime-specific nutrition, which Nightfood is pioneering, will be a billion-dollar category.
NightFood Hldg Inc (OTCMKTS:NGTF) generated sales of $206K, according to information released in the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 270.5% on the top line. But the big numbers are likely just ahead for this high-growth name as it blossoms in the night time health and nutrition market with its award-winning ice cream brand and penetrates the pregnancy nutrition space as well.
Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) recently announced a multi-year pea protein supply agreement with Roquette, a global leader in plant-based ingredients and a pioneer of plant proteins.
According to the release, the supply agreement builds on a longstanding partnership that began approximately ten years ago, and significantly increases the amount of pea protein to be supplied by Roquette to Beyond Meat over the next three years as compared to the amount supplied in 2019.
Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat’s Founder & CEO commented, “This latest contract with Roquette reflects Beyond Meat’s commitment to further scaling the plant protein supply chain as global demand for our products continues to rise. Along with our supply chain partners, including Roquette, we are driving innovation and access to existing and new plant protein feedstocks as we provide consumers around the world with plant-based meats that delight taste buds while contributing to important health, climate, natural resource, and animal welfare goals.”
Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) bills itself as a food company that provides plant-based meats.
It offers its products in the meat platforms of beef, pork, and poultry. The company sells its products to various customers in the retail and foodservice channels through brokers and distributors in the United States and internationally.
We started off by noting that BYND recently hit the wires with the announcement a multi-year pea protein supply agreement with Roquette, a global leader in plant-based ingredients and a pioneer of plant proteins.
Even with that news, the action hasn’t really heated up in the stock, with shares moving net sideways over the past week. Shares of the stock have powered higher over the past month, rallying roughly 12% in that time on strong overall action.
Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) generated sales of $92M, according to information released in the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 36.7% on the top line. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($312.5M against $56.2M).
