Nuveen LLC Trims Stock Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Nuveen LLC lowered its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,746,773 shares of the company’s stock after selling 414,549 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $670,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MNST. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the 4th quarter valued at about $691,104,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,191,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $474,695,000 after buying an additional 6,108,420 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,538,872,000 after buying an additional 2,789,273 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after buying an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,033,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,765,000 after buying an additional 2,096,575 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 81,763 shares in the company, valued at $7,028,347.48. The trade was a 52.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $92.03 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a twelve month low of $58.09 and a twelve month high of $92.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $81.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $79.16. The firm has a market cap of $90.01 billion, a PE ratio of 44.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.54.

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

Monster Beverage announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MNST. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Argus lifted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.05.

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.