Touchstone Capital Inc. Buys New Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Touchstone Capital Inc. bought a new position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 143,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,649,000. Monster Beverage makes up approximately 4.9% of Touchstone Capital Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 574,275 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 2.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,004,000 after acquiring an additional 900,479 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased 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 raised its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 4.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,165,292,000 after purchasing an additional 742,518 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,983,411 shares of the company’s stock worth $688,001,000 after purchasing an additional 1,829,064 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $78.43 on Wednesday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52 week low of $45.70 and a 52 week high of $78.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $74.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $67.68. The firm has a market cap of $76.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.46.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.76% and a net margin of 21.65%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total transaction of $2,741,782.54. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 21,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,568,760.69. This represents a 63.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 274,981 shares of company stock worth $20,138,516. Insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MNST. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $81.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $86.00 target price (up from $83.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Monday, January 5th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.05.

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.