Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.42.

MNST has been the topic of several research reports. CICC Research raised shares of Monster Beverage from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 48,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.89, for a total value of $2,634,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 296,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,293,876.94. The trade was a 13.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 91,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.38, for a total transaction of $5,057,080.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 76,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,220,011.38. This represents a 54.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 208,316 shares of company stock valued at $11,484,440. Company insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 4,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 724 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 13,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $714,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 11,838 shares of the company’s stock worth $622,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the period. Finally, Conning Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 5,853 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $60.23 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.09 and its 200-day moving average is $54.06. The stock has a market cap of $58.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.63. Monster Beverage has a twelve month low of $43.32 and a twelve month high of $62.46. The company has a quick ratio of 2.51, a current ratio of 3.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.66% and a return on equity of 23.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Monster Beverage Company Profile

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.