Guy Carling Sells 19,000 Shares of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Stock

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) CEO Guy Carling sold 19,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.90, for a total transaction of $1,727,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 21,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,987,346.70. This represents a 46.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNST opened at $92.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $90.79 billion, a PE ratio of 44.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a twelve month low of $58.09 and a twelve month high of $93.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.26.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The firm 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 earned $0.47 EPS. Monster Beverage’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Monster Beverage by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,212,080,000 after buying an additional 497,108 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,021,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,915,120,000 after purchasing an additional 302,557 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,509,369,000 after purchasing an additional 330,766 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,532,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $908,102,000 after purchasing an additional 99,168 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after purchasing an additional 692,192 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MNST has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced 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 report on Thursday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $103.00 price target on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.35.

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.