From a heavily shorted 2019 IPO to one of the most shorted US stocks for six consecutive years, in FINRA's own twice-monthly figures.
Figures are the short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding, from FINRA data, 150 points between 15 Oct 2019 and 31 Dec 2025.
Beyond Meat listed in May 2019 and became one of the year's best-performing new issues within weeks; it also became one of the most shorted. The first FINRA count in our window, for 15 Oct 2019, already shows 9.37% of shares outstanding sold short, a high figure for a company whose freely tradable shares were still limited by post-IPO lock-ups.
The position never went away. Through the plant-based food sector's rise and its subsequent decline in sales, the reported short interest stayed in the tens of percent, and it reached its high of 84.84% on 31 Oct 2025. The 2025 figures reflect the company's debt restructuring that year, which changed its share count substantially.
A short position this persistent behaves differently from a squeeze candidate's spike: it rises and falls with the company's results rather than with a single event. FINRA's days-to-cover figure, which peaked at 25.02 days on 15 Jul 2025, tracks how the position compared with trading volume over the same period. By 31 Dec 2025 the position stood at 30.85%.
Full history and today's figure: Beyond Meat, Inc..
US short interest data: FINRA (finra.org). FINRA® is a registered trademark of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by FINRA or the SEC; displayed for personal reference, bulk redistribution is not permitted (see terms). The narrative describes what the published figures showed and widely reported public events around them; it is not a description of any company's prospects and is not investment advice.