Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. The company's product became available across the United States in 2013.In May 2016, it released the first plant-based burger to be sold in the meat section of grocery stores, on an international basis.

That is not surprising, Beyond Meat has been hard to miss if you follow headlines. The stock has been on a wild ride, and there are reasons to be excited. Here are a few of them.

Consumer acceptance of plant-based meat substitutes has become very strong with many major restaurant chains rushing to add these items to their menu. There is definitely a trend toward plant-only diets. There are about 7.3 Million vegetarians in the U.S, a little more than 3% of American adults.

Beyond Meat has blown up!

Since going public in early May, the stock has raced nearly 600% higher, taking its market cap above $10 Billion. The plant-based meat company is now larger than 80 S&P 500 companies, including Macy's, Xerox and Mylan.

While Beyond Meat is by far the market's biggest IPO success story this year. When a stock like Beyond Meat rockets higher like it has since its IPO, turning in hte best perfomrance of any new stock market issue in 2019 - up more than 550% - there's a lesson to be learned. I'm just not 100% sure anyone wants tgo hear it. It is not the lesson about being so smart to knew exactly which hot IPO stock to get into.