Waterloo Capital L.P. Acquires 8,231 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Waterloo Capital L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 117.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,230 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,231 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $1,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Monster Beverage by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,360,899 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,094,207,000 after acquiring an additional 574,275 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 2.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,004,000 after purchasing an additional 900,479 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 1.5% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,656,847,000 after purchasing an additional 385,692 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 4.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,165,292,000 after purchasing an additional 742,518 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Monster Beverage by 20.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,983,411 shares of the company’s stock worth $688,001,000 after buying an additional 1,829,064 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at $4,687,368.09. The trade was a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 274,981 shares of company stock valued at $20,138,516. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MNST shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Monday, January 26th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Argus raised their target price on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.71.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 1.0%

Monster Beverage stock opened at $82.54 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $77.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.07. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $46.19 and a 12 month high of $83.24. The company has a market capitalization of $80.64 billion, a PE ratio of 46.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.45.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.76% and a net margin of 21.65%.The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.