Insider Selling: Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Director Sells $4,633,740.00 in Stock

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) Director Mark Hall sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNST traded up $1.27 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $87.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,147,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,841,254. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $76.38 and a 200-day moving average of $76.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.07, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.50. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $58.09 and a 12-month high of $88.77.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued 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. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Monster Beverage’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MNST. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 397.9% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $890,000 after acquiring an additional 12,148 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 247.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 9,251 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 23.9% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 55.9% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in Monster Beverage by 151.7% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 34,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,134,000 after purchasing an additional 20,538 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MNST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. Evercore upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.37.

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.