Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Stock Holdings Lessened by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lessened its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 7.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,108,817 shares of the company’s stock after selling 88,181 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $80,345,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,080,000 after purchasing an additional 497,108 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,021,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,915,120,000 after purchasing an additional 302,557 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,509,369,000 after purchasing an additional 330,766 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Monster Beverage by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after purchasing an additional 692,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,676,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $741,879,000 after buying an additional 1,500,577 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of MNST opened at $96.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $94.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $58.09 and a fifty-two week high of $97.87. The business’s 50-day moving average is $85.97 and its 200-day moving average is $80.58.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on MNST shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.35.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, 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 value of $4,633,740.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 81,763 shares in the company, valued at $7,028,347.48. This represents a 52.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 178,700 shares of company stock valued at $15,457,562. 8.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Monster Beverage

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.