Guy Carling Sells 47,000 Shares of Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST) Stock

Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST) insider Guy Carling sold 47,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.02, for a total transaction of $2,585,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 21,993 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,210,054.86. This represents a 68.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 1.4 %

MNST stock opened at $55.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 2.51 and a current ratio of 3.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.76. Monster Beverage Co. has a 52 week low of $43.32 and a 52 week high of $61.21. The company has a market capitalization of $53.61 billion, a PE ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.71.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.02). Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.66% and a return on equity of 23.31%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Co. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,742,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,760,341,000 after acquiring an additional 2,168,379 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 4.7% during the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 27,142,970 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,416,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229,789 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 109.3% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,559,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,176,913,000 after purchasing an additional 11,779,162 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,112,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $897,012,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,914 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,590,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $451,543,000 after purchasing an additional 734,406 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on MNST. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas dropped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.83.

About Monster Beverage

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.