Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Cuts Stock Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 14.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 294,592 shares of the company’s stock after selling 50,337 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $22,587,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 508.1% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 136.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 355 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% in the second 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 last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Corp purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MNST shares. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Argus raised their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.55.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.9%

MNST opened at $78.23 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1-year low of $57.86 and a 1-year high of $87.38. The company has a market capitalization of $76.50 billion, a PE ratio of 40.32, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $77.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.51.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 22.97% and a return on equity of 27.38%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.