Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Given New $78.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its target price cut by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $81.00 to $78.00 in a research report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 3.60% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.40.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 2.4%

MNST traded down $1.83 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $75.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 338,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,668,483. Monster Beverage has a 52-week low of $58.09 and a 52-week high of $87.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.80. The firm has a market cap of $73.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.50.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 22.97% and a return on equity of 27.38%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 2.29 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MNST. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter worth about $691,104,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,191,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,695,000 after purchasing an additional 6,108,420 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 133.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,499,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,660,000 after purchasing an additional 4,858,109 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Company 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.