DoorDash beats, Beyond Meat strikes deals, Airbnb blows past revenue expectations

Julie Hyman, Emily McCormick, and Brian Sozzi discuss quarterly earnings of Beyond Meat, Airbnb, and DoorDash. Beyond Meat reported deals with McDonald’s and Yum Brands as shares fall on earnings miss. DoorDash and Airbnb beat estimates, while DoorDash said it expects a slowdown in sales.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Let's talk about some of the companies out with earnings after the close of trading yesterday in particular, some of these sort of hot names that have had IPOs in recent days. And we start with Airbnb, the company did post a $3.9 billion loss in the fourth quarter. A lot of that was costs tied to its initial public offering and also some costs tied to loans because of COVID. But, of course, Airbnb has been one of these companies that has adapted remarkably and also been sort of fortunate in its business, right, in the time of coronavirus. Emily, you know, people not necessarily wanting to go to hotels in cities, they'd rather rent a house all to themselves out in the country somewhere.

EMILY MCCORMICK: That's right, Julie. And I do think that is one of the big benefits here that Airbnb has. I mean, instead of going to a hotel where you'll have to contend with a potentially crowded lobby, you could just rent out an Airbnb for a longer stretch of time. And that's really what consumers have been looking for during the pandemic.

And when we look at that top line, down 22% year over year, but still better than feared when you think about some of the year over year declines that we've seen in traditional hotel companies. And if you look at Airbnb, of course, with a market cap of over $100 billion, that's more than double what we see from Marriott, for example. And so I think that really is telling you that Wall Street thinks that Airbnb's model with this experience as sort of renting out full home-driven model is what consumers are going to continue looking for even as we get this re-opening under way.

JULIE HYMAN: And another company that was out was a DoorDash which has also, of course, benefited from people being at home and ordering in. And the numbers there are pretty impressive, sales up 226%. But, Emily, and you covered these earnings, the question is, what happens now for a company like DoorDash?

EMILY MCCORMICK: That's right. And again, just taking a look here, DoorDash didn't really do too much to assuage Wall Street's concerns about growth going forward. They said that the outlook remains quote, "highly uncertain." They said that they cannot predict the short or long-term effects that reopening will actually have on consumer behavior. So when you look at top line growth at more than 200%, more than tripling over last year, the question of whether that's going to be sustained.

And DoorDash itself is essentially saying it will not be able to sustain this type of growth. And when you combine that with the fact that the company actually doubled its net losses on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter, something that really is weighing heavily on this stock. I mean, it still is up when you consider where it had opened for its IPO and where those shares had been trading, but really had been coming down precipitously over the past month, as we've seen that rotation into these reopenings plays.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, you know, and I'll just add on Dash too, that's a great point on slowing sales, Emily. You had in the most recent quarter for Door Dash sales up 226% for a growth stock like DoorDash direction of growth is going to matter. In the third quarter, their sales were up 268%. The Street is not going to like slowing sales growth on a high growth stock or a supposed high growth stock like a DoorDash. And also too, you know, in their press release, they highlight the directional trend in adjusted profits. And if you look at that trend, just that trend line, it looks like it may have plateaued in near term. Again, that's not-- that's not something, Julie, that you really want to see.

JULIE HYMAN: No, definitely not. Something else that you watch very closely, Brian Sozzi, is Beyond Meat. It's such an interesting story, right? I've been hearing some ads now for the Impossible Whopper that are interesting in comparison and in competition with Beyond Meat. But the company did say that it was signing some new deals with McDonald's and with Yum Brands, even as a reported those-- that revenue, as we're showing, that they did come in a little bit below estimate. So are these deals sort of overshadowing the numbers?

BRIAN SOZZI: I have a lot to digest on this quarter. And I don't know if I've fully digested it, no pun intended this morning, guys. But, yes, they did come out with two new deals for McDonald's and Yum Brands. But, really, the focus point, I think, is on the McDonald's deal. And I will note this, this is not an exclusive deal with McDonald's. And I tweeted this out. This is a preferred deal.

And I do think that leaves the door open for McDonald's to use other plant-based products in whatever it decides to do with its plant-based menu. And I think that initially maybe put some pressure on the stock last night. Now it is up 8% this morning, which I am a little surprised about.

You know, the earnings conference call, CEO Ethan Brown continued to highlight pressure on the food service business. Those sales were down about 42% in the most recent quarter. And I am-- and I think investors do have to watch out for a potential price war in the plant-based meat aisle.

You've seen over the past few weeks Impossible Foods come out saying it's lowering the prices on its food to restaurants by 15%. Now they're taking it to retail, cutting it by 20%. Now Brown said he's not going to get into this price war. He's just not going to do it. But you have to wonder, when your biggest competitor is out there slashing and burning prices, are you going to be sucked into it as well?

JULIE HYMAN: Well, it doesn't look like the stock is trading on that perception at this point. So we'll see what happens. It looks like investors are maybe taking him at his word right now.