Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Insider Sells $857,400.00 in Stock

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total value of $857,400.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 71,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,152,959.62. The trade was a 12.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Emelie Tirre also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, May 13th, Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of Monster Beverage stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of MNST stock opened at $87.09 on Monday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1-year low of $58.09 and a 1-year high of $88.77. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $76.55 and its 200 day moving average is $76.64. The company has a market cap of $85.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.07, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.50.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The company had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Monster Beverage announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,080,000 after purchasing an additional 497,108 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,021,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,915,120,000 after purchasing an additional 302,557 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,509,369,000 after purchasing an additional 330,766 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after purchasing an additional 692,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,676,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $741,879,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500,577 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MNST shares. Citigroup increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated 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. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.37.

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.