Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Sets New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $89.50 and last traded at $89.5440, with a volume of 487467 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.42.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MNST shares. Evercore boosted their price target on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup upped their price target on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $100.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.89.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.62. The company has a market capitalization of $87.53 billion, a PE ratio of 43.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.50.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total transaction of $857,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 71,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,152,959.62. The trade was a 12.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 over the last ninety days. 8.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,844,000 after buying an additional 21,169 shares in the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage during the third quarter valued at about $59,170,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,303,000 after acquiring an additional 116,510 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,738,000 after acquiring an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 2,436.3% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 57,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,862,000 after acquiring an additional 55,109 shares in 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.