Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Purchased by KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS boosted its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 15.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 416,394 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 56,800 shares during the quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $28,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new position in Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 49.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 647.3% during the second quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 553 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total transaction of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 274,981 shares of company stock valued at $20,138,516 in the last quarter. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.6%

MNST stock opened at $76.14 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.22. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $45.70 and a 12-month high of $78.31. The firm has a market cap of $74.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.46.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.65% and a return on equity of 27.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on MNST shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 price target on Monster Beverage and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $79.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.10.

Monster Beverage Profile

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) is an American beverage company best known for its Monster Energy brand of energy drinks. The company’s product portfolio centers on carbonated energy beverages and a range of complementary ready-to-drink offerings, including energy coffees, hydration beverages and other flavored functional drinks. Monster markets multiple sub-brands and flavor variants to address different consumer segments and consumption occasions.

Originally organized around the Hansen’s Natural line of juices and sodas, the company pivoted toward the energy drink category and formally adopted the Monster Beverage name in the early 2010s to reflect its strategic focus.