Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Price Target Raised to $88.00

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its price target hoisted by research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $83.00 to $88.00 in a report released on Tuesday. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 3.91% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $79.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Monster Beverage from $75.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.00.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 1.1%

MNST opened at $84.69 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $79.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.92. Monster Beverage has a 1 year low of $50.93 and a 1 year high of $84.88. The stock has a market cap of $82.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.12, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, 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 value of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at $4,687,368.09. This trade represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,212,080,000 after purchasing an additional 497,108 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,021,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,915,120,000 after buying an additional 302,557 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,656,847,000 after buying an additional 385,692 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,509,369,000 after buying an additional 330,766 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $785,885,000 after buying an additional 692,192 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

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.