Townsquare Capital LLC Lowers Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Townsquare Capital LLC trimmed its position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 59.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,391 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,568 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter worth $27,000. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. First Horizon Corp bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MNST has been the subject of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Exane BNP Paribas upgraded Monster Beverage from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 target price on Monster Beverage and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Zacks Research downgraded Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Monster Beverage from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.86.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.9%

Monster Beverage stock opened at $80.76 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $45.70 and a 12 month high of $83.24. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.35. The firm has a market cap of $78.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.89, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.46.

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

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total transaction of $2,741,782.54. Following the sale, the insider owned 21,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,568,760.69. This represents a 63.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 274,981 shares of company stock worth $20,138,516 over the last three months. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.