Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Price Target Raised to $95.00

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its price objective hoisted by Argus from $90.00 to $95.00 in a research note published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (up previously from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Monday. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.86.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

NASDAQ MNST opened at $80.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $78.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.48, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.13. Monster Beverage has a 52-week low of $45.70 and a 52-week high of $83.24.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.65% and a return on equity of 27.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 274,981 shares of company stock worth $20,138,516. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $544,584,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in Monster Beverage by 4,877.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,283,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,262,000 after purchasing an additional 7,137,552 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in 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 during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 467.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,849,036 shares of the company’s stock valued at $422,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641,160 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 2,789,273 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

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.