Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. Acquires 643,544 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 1,108.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 701,618 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 643,544 shares during the quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $53,793,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,844,000 after buying an additional 21,169 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,303,000 after buying an additional 116,510 shares in the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at about $59,170,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,738,000 after acquiring an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 2,436.3% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 57,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,862,000 after acquiring an additional 55,109 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MNST shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 target price (up from $96.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Sunday, May 10th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price target (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.89.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $87.99 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.91. Monster Beverage Corporation has a one year low of $58.09 and a one year high of $89.85. The company has a market cap of $86.06 billion, a PE ratio of 42.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.50.

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

Monster Beverage announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total value of $857,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 71,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,152,959.62. This represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock valued at $13,730,462 over the last 90 days. 8.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage 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.