Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Raised to “Hold” at Sanford C. Bernstein

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) was upgraded by Sanford C. Bernstein to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $103.00 price objective on Monster Beverage and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.35.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

MNST stock opened at $92.83 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.79 billion, a PE ratio of 44.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage has a 1 year low of $58.09 and a 1 year high of $93.08.

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

Monster Beverage announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, CEO Guy Carling sold 19,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.90, for a total value of $1,727,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,863 shares in the company, valued at $1,987,346.70. This trade represents a 46.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total value of $614,670.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 62,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,492,778.93. The trade was a 10.06% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 178,700 shares of company stock valued at $15,457,562 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter worth about $691,104,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 133.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,499,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,660,000 after buying an additional 4,858,109 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings 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 worth $2,538,872,000 after buying an additional 2,789,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after buying an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

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.