Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Monday.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on MNST. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.14.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $76.70 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $74.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $80.13 and its 200-day moving average is $73.20. Monster Beverage has a one year low of $54.00 and a one year high of $87.38.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The business had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. Monster Beverage’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total transaction of $2,199,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $691,104,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 4,877.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,283,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,262,000 after purchasing an additional 7,137,552 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 7,360.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 6,108,420 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 467.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,849,036 shares of the company’s stock valued at $422,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 133.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,499,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,660,000 after buying an additional 4,858,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.