Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Sets New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after CICC Research upgraded the stock from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. CICC Research now has a $65.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $56.00. Monster Beverage traded as high as $62.46 and last traded at $61.69, with a volume of 724255 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $61.00.

MNST has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.50, for a total transaction of $654,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 296,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,178,107. This represents a 3.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 91,316 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.38, for a total transaction of $5,057,080.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 76,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,220,011.38. This represents a 54.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 208,316 shares of company stock valued at $11,484,440. Corporate insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MNST. Czech National Bank grew its position in Monster Beverage by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 151,821 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,980,000 after purchasing an additional 8,150 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 12,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the last quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage in the fourth quarter valued at $208,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage in the fourth quarter valued at $936,000. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 1.8%

The stock has a market cap of $58.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.61, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 2.51, a current ratio of 3.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.06.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.66% and a return on equity of 23.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Monster Beverage Co. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Monster Beverage

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.