Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Price Target Raised to $80.00

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its price target raised by TD Cowen from $74.00 to $80.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a hold rating on the stock.

MNST has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 price target on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Roth Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.05.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

NASDAQ MNST opened at $77.34 on Thursday. Monster Beverage has a fifty-two week low of $45.70 and a fifty-two week high of $78.31. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.41. The stock has a market cap of $75.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.46.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.76% and a net margin of 21.65%.The business’s revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total value of $2,741,782.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 21,993 shares in the company, valued at $1,568,760.69. This trade represents a 63.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 274,981 shares of company stock valued at $20,138,516 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monster Beverage

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after acquiring an additional 2,122,685 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,538,872,000 after buying an additional 2,789,273 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in Monster Beverage by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,656,847,000 after buying an additional 385,692 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,165,292,000 after acquiring an additional 742,518 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $785,885,000 after acquiring an additional 692,192 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Company 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.