Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Takes Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 12,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $933,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MNST. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 136.7% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 355 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 508.1% during the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp bought a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at about $45,000. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MNST shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.05.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 0.9%

MNST stock opened at $89.04 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $87.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a twelve month low of $58.09 and a twelve month high of $89.86. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $79.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $78.41.

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

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at $25,678,299.26. This trade represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total transaction of $614,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 62,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,492,778.93. This trade represents a 10.06% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 159,700 shares of company stock valued at $13,730,462. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.