Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on MNST. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $73.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Evercore upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.14.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 1.1%

MNST stock opened at $77.52 on Monday. Monster Beverage has a 52-week low of $54.00 and a 52-week high of $87.38. The stock has a market cap of $75.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average of $80.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.23.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total transaction of $2,199,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,687,368.09. This trade represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MNST. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 508.1% during the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares during the period. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 136.7% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 355 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Corp acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.