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Saying Beyond Meat is a volatile stock is an understatement. Shares rose 12.5% Tuesday, and powered higher still early Wednesday, without any bombshell piece of news. Several factors, including, strangely enough, the consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas, are likely responsible for the jump.

It has been a wild ride for Beyond Meat (ticker: BYND) investors. The stock has ranged from a low of $25—the company’s initial public offering price—to a high of just under $240 a share. It started off Tuesday trading for less than $75, before rising more than $9 through the day to $83.89. Shares were up 2.7% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Why the volatility? Here are a few suggestions.

CES

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is under way. It’s an annual fete where tech and car companies showcase the latest gadgets. But what does a tech conference have to do with plant-based, alternative meat? Beyond Meat’s competitor Impossible Foods is there, showing off its plant-based pork product.

Alternative meat is now a tech product. Any traction with consumers, or illustration that plant-based meat can tap markets outside of its core role as a replacement for hamburgers, is good for all faux-meat players.

The Golden Arches

Impossible Foods, which is privately held, helped Beyond shareholder for another reason. CNBC reported that Impossible wasn’t going to produce a burger for McDonald’s (MCD). Impossible wasn’t immediately available to comment.

That’s good news for Beyond. which is testing the Beyond Burger at some McDonald’s restaurants in Canada. Beyond and McDonald’s didn’t immediately reply to a question early Wednesday about when McDonald’s plant-based burger, the PLT, might come to the U.S.

Impossible, of course, makes the plant-based Impossible Whopper for Burger King, a division of Restaurant Brands International (QSR).

Everything Else

Beyond Meat continues to expand its distribution into new groceries and restaurants. Beyond products, for instance, are now available at fresh-meat counters in Canadian groceries. That news hit in December. The company also said Monday its meatball product was available at all Canadian Subway restaurants.

Of course, Beyond Meat shares are heavily shorted. Bearish investors sell borrowed shares, betting on price declines. Heavily shorted stocks are typically more volatile than, say, the average stock in the S&P 500.

Moves to close out short bets, which typically cause stock prices to rise by providing a flurry of buy orders, can make a share-price jump prompted by other factors much larger. But more often than not, short covering isn’t the underlying reason for the stock-price move in the first place.

Barron’s wrote recently that we were cautious on Beyond Meat stock when shares traded around $100. The stock is expensive based on many traditional valuation metrics, such as its price relative to sales. That was the reason for our caution.

Initially, we looked foolish, with a lack of vision. Shares hit almost $240.

Later we looked smart. Shares dropped below $80.

With a stock this volatile there is plenty of pride and pain to go around. But will the rally continue? It’s hard to say.

Beyond has dropped on great earnings and rallied on seemingly less consequential news. All anyone can likely say is that shares will stay volatile.

Beyond stock is now up 11% year to date, better than the gain of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Shares, however, are down more than 40% over the past three months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com