UBS Group Cuts Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Price Target to $80.00

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its price objective lowered by research analysts at UBS Group from $92.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. UBS Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 7.87% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on MNST. Wall Street Zen downgraded Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Monster Beverage from $94.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 16th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Monster Beverage from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.19.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $74.16 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $72.52 billion, a PE ratio of 38.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.51. Monster Beverage has a 52 week low of $54.73 and a 52 week high of $87.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $78.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.62.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,021,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,915,120,000 after purchasing an additional 302,557 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,509,369,000 after purchasing an additional 330,766 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 6.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $785,885,000 after purchasing an additional 692,192 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 11.3% during the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 9,957,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,013,356 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.