Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 143,239 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,987 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $9,641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Access Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 1,338.7% during the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Corp bought a new stake in Monster Beverage during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 72.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total transaction of $2,199,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 274,981 shares of company stock valued at $20,138,516 over the last quarter. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNST opened at $80.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $78.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.48, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.46. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $45.70 and a 12 month high of $83.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.13.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.76% and a net margin of 21.65%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MNST has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Zacks Research cut Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Exane BNP Paribas upgraded Monster Beverage from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target (up previously from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.86.

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.