Freedom Broker names biggest small cap outperformer and underperformer from last week
Freedom Broker has pointed out the two small-cap stocks with the most pronounced moves last week (October 20-24). The outperformer was plant-based meat producer Beyond Meat, while the underperformer was biopharma company Alector, a developer of therapies for dementia.
Outperformer: Beyond Meat
Shares of Beyond Meat, a producer of plant-based meat backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, surged 339% last week, according to Freedom Broker’s report on the small-cap space last week (seen by Oninvest). The sharp rally was driven by a large-scale short squeeze against the backdrop of elevated short interest and a spike in retail investor activity, analysts wrote.
On October 20, Roundhill Investments added the stock to its Roundhill Meme Stock ETF. A day earlier, Dubai-based retail trader Dimitri Semenikhin, known online as Capybara Stocks, claimed to have bought a 4% stake in Beyond Meat in a YouTube video. The rally continued after the company announced plans to expand its Walmart partnership, which market participants read as a possible stabilizing factor for sales, Freedom noted.
Still, analysts view the explosive gains as speculative. Fundamentals remain weak due to falling demand, a heavy debt load, and shareholder dilution. In the second quarter, the company reported a nearly 20% year-over-year decline in net revenue to $75 million and later announced a convertible-note swap offer to reduce leverage, which noteholders agreed to.
Underperformer: Alector
Shares of Alector, a biotech with a market cap of $151.8 million, fell 51.6% last week. The selloff followed the failure of a pivotal phase III trial of its lead drug latozinemab for frontotemporal dementia caused by a progranulin gene mutation, Freedom wrote. The disease leads to progressive changes in personality, behavior, and speech.
The setback undermined the company’s core scientific hypothesis and triggered an operational overhaul. Alector terminated the entire latozinemab program, which it developed in partnership with GSK, and announced plans to cut its workforce by 49%. In parallel, president and head of R&D Sara Kenkare-Mitra announced her resignation.
It was Alector’s second clinical failure in a year, Freedom recalls. In November 2024, the company reported that a phase II study of another candidate being developed with AbbVie for Alzheimer’s disease had also failed. Only one pipeline program remains, and interim data is not expected before the first half of 2026.
The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.
