Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 7.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 344,929 shares of the company’s stock after selling 25,996 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $23,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third 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 lifted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 2.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,004,000 after purchasing an additional 900,479 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.5% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,656,847,000 after purchasing an additional 385,692 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 742,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Monster Beverage by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,983,411 shares of the company’s stock worth $688,001,000 after buying an additional 1,829,064 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Monster Beverage stock opened at $78.99 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.17 billion, a PE ratio of 40.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.44. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.00 and a 12-month high of $87.38.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MNST has been the topic of several analyst reports. Argus lifted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $73.00 price target (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total transaction of $2,199,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 7.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.