Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Insider Emelie Tirre Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total transaction of $857,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 71,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,152,959.62. This represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Emelie Tirre also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, May 13th, Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of Monster Beverage stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total transaction of $7,624,652.00.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 1.5%

Monster Beverage stock opened at $87.09 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52-week low of $58.09 and a 52-week high of $88.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.07, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.59.

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

Monster Beverage announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of 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. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $100.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.37.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MNST. CI Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.5% during the first quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 3,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $253,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the period. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 6,134 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 2.8% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 4,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

About Monster Beverage

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.