Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-two ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $89.35.

MNST has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $103.00 price objective on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of MNST opened at $93.02 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $84.37 and its 200 day moving average is $80.03. Monster Beverage has a fifty-two week low of $58.09 and a fifty-two week high of $93.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.97 billion, a PE ratio of 44.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.54.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The business had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Monster Beverage declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 81,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,028,347.48. This represents a 52.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 178,700 shares of company stock worth $15,457,562. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 397.9% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $890,000 after purchasing an additional 12,148 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 247.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $813,000 after purchasing an additional 9,251 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 23.9% in the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 55.9% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 151.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 34,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,134,000 after purchasing an additional 20,538 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.