West Family Investments Inc. Has $384,000 Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

West Family Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 78.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,125 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,698 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $384,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Monster Beverage by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,360,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,094,207,000 after purchasing an additional 574,275 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,656,847,000 after buying an additional 385,692 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 742,518 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,154,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,712,000 after buying an additional 563,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 4.9% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 8,944,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $560,282,000 after buying an additional 418,918 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total transaction of $2,741,782.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 21,993 shares in the company, valued at $1,568,760.69. The trade was a 63.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on MNST. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on Monster Beverage from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price target (up previously from $56.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.62.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Monster Beverage stock opened at $75.03 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $45.70 and a fifty-two week high of $75.27. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $69.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.80. The firm has a market cap of $73.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.53.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.46% and a net margin of 20.54%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

About Monster Beverage

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.