Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Acquires New Shares in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 87,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,867,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in Monster Beverage by 508.1% in the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. First Horizon Corp bought a new position in Monster Beverage during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 49.0% in the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 444 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of MNST opened at $76.70 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.20. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52 week low of $54.00 and a 52 week high of $87.38. The stock has a market cap of $74.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.54, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.10 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $73.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.14.

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.