Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Sold by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lowered its holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 85.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 147,369 shares of the company’s stock after selling 852,012 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $11,440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,844,000 after acquiring an additional 21,169 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,303,000 after acquiring an additional 116,510 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,738,000 after acquiring an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after acquiring an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 19.2% in the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 357,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,031,000 after acquiring an additional 57,389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MNST. Morgan Stanley set a $103.00 price target on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Friday, June 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $95.00 price target for the company. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.35.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total transaction of $614,670.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 62,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,492,778.93. This represents a 10.06% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 178,700 shares of company stock worth $15,457,562 over the last 90 days. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNST opened at $92.95 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $90.91 billion, a PE ratio of 44.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a twelve month low of $58.09 and a twelve month high of $93.92. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.56.

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

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.