Insider Selling: Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Insider Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total transaction of $857,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 71,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,152,959.62. This trade represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Emelie Tirre also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, May 13th, Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of Monster Beverage stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $7,624,652.00.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MNST traded up $1.27 during trading on Friday, hitting $87.09. 6,147,721 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,841,254. The company has a market cap of $85.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.07, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.50. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1 year low of $58.09 and a 1 year high of $88.77. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $76.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.52.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The business’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MNST. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the 4th quarter worth approximately $691,104,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,191,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,695,000 after purchasing an additional 6,108,420 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 133.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,499,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,660,000 after purchasing an additional 4,858,109 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.37.

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.