Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

by · The Markets Daily

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on MNST. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $96.00 price target (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Monday, January 26th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Evercore lifted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.14.

Read Our Latest Report on MNST

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $75.72 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.10. Monster Beverage has a fifty-two week low of $54.00 and a fifty-two week high of $87.38. The firm has a market cap of $73.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,687,368.09. This trade represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MNST. 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. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 136.7% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the third quarter worth about $29,000. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Monster Beverage Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

Featured Stories