113,882 Shares in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Acquired by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 113,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,665,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,004,000 after purchasing an additional 900,479 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in shares of 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 worth $1,656,847,000 after purchasing an additional 385,692 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,165,292,000 after purchasing an additional 742,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 20.0% in 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.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,687,368.09. The trade was a 31.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $75.72 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $80.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.10. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52-week low of $54.00 and a 52-week high of $87.38. The company has a market cap of $73.98 billion, a PE ratio of 39.03, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 22.97% and a return on equity of 27.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Monday, December 29th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.14.

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.