Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Director Mark Hall Sells 54,000 Shares

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) Director Mark Hall sold 54,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

MNST stock opened at $87.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $85.17 billion, a PE ratio of 42.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.50. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $58.09 and a 12 month high of $88.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $76.55 and its 200 day moving average is $76.59.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MNST has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 price target (up from $96.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Evercore raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.37.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Monster Beverage in the fourth quarter worth about $691,104,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,191,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,695,000 after purchasing an additional 6,108,420 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 133.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,499,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,660,000 after purchasing an additional 4,858,109 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 8.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.