When you can't come up with another name for plant-based anything
Happy $500M-Pumpkin-Spice season.
Markets finished their 2nd-straight positive week — that's courtesy of August's jobs report (unemployment stayed at a nearly 50-year low 3.7%) and signs that US/China trade chats are back on for October (relationships just take 1 phone call).
Vinyasa flows are for the boys... Lululemon already recognized that it needs to get its pants on the other half of the population, so earlier this year it made a bold goal: Double its men's line over the next 5 years. Investors rewarded the athleisure pioneer as its quarterly sales of guys clothes surged 35%, popping shares up 8% last week.
Game of Deal Thrones... and JPMorgan's got a dragonglass sword. Over the weekend we learned that America's largest financial firm is close to winning the biggest IPO in history: Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco (that's Earth's most profitable company). Advising the deal as the lead investment bank is a lucrative bragging rights victory.
Jealous... Tinder-owner Match crumbled 5% as soon as Facebook unveiled its new look: Facebook Dating just hit the US (it's exactly what it sounds like). Match shareholders have known for months Zuck was getting into the swipe-game with a feature to connect singles based on interests. But the surprise was how much Facebook integrated Instagram into playing matchmaker — that cuts straight through Tinder's soul.
Bralettes > Pushups... 2 numbers explain it all: American Eagle's sales fell 1% — but sales for its lingerie brand Aerie surged 16%. The Millennial-toned bralette legend is snagging market share from Victoria's Secret. So while American Eagle stock dropped on overall weakness, it's rewarding Aerie with 40 more of its own stores.
That whole destroy email thing?... That'll cost more than expected. Slack unveiled its 1st earnings report since going public — and shares fell 14% after it only added 5K new clients. Looks like the office instant-messager's 1st 10M clients (startups, scaleups, VCs) were a lot easier than its next 10M (law firms, financial institutions, corporate America) will be.
The cavalry has arrived on stalks of celery... We unofficially hit peak plant-based meat last week as established food icons jumped on the bandwagon (don't worry — it's a Prius). You can decide whether the market — looks/tastes/bleeds like animal meat, but smaller environmental impact — is bigger or smaller than its cousin industry, plant-based milk.
The iMEATation game... Here are major new brands/partnership announced just this month. The primary theme is aggressive creativity around the names:
One of Beyond Meat's advantages is gone... The only publicly traded company that's 100% plant-based meat had a tailgate-worthy IPO (rival Impossible Foods is big, but private). Beyond's stock though has fallen 35% since July, and a hefty portion of that is from increased competition. Here's how its 2 divisions are doing:
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Amazon and Beyond Meat
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