Short Interest in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) Increases By 109.4%

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 38,435,879 shares, an increase of 109.4% from the July 30th total of 18,354,341 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 11,315,301 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MNST. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, June 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $47.50 target price on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $38.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $40.50 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.33.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $46.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $91.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.53. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $47.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.05. Monster Beverage has a one year low of $30.88 and a one year high of $50.17.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.08% and a return on equity of 26.02%. Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Monster Beverage declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monster Beverage

In other news, CEO Guy Carling sold 38,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.45, for a total transaction of $1,727,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 43,726 shares in the company, valued at $1,987,346.70. This represents a 46.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 8.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 8,682.5% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 107,690,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,351,252,000 after purchasing an additional 106,464,724 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter valued at $5,770,004,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in 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 grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 330,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Monster Beverage by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,532,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $908,102,000 after buying an additional 99,168 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

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.