Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Acquired by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP lifted its position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 35.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 855,501 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 224,238 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $57,584,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 508.1% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 49.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 444 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $73.00 price target (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Evercore boosted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Monster Beverage from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted 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. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.14.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $75.61 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $73.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.97, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.02. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.00 and a 12-month high of $87.38.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The company had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. Monster Beverage’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 7.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.