Savant Capital LLC Cuts Stake in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Savant Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 58.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,034 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,152 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $769,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,844,000 after purchasing an additional 21,169 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,303,000 after purchasing an additional 116,510 shares in the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage during the third quarter worth about $59,170,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Monster Beverage by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,738,000 after acquiring an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,320,000 after acquiring an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MNST. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $87.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total transaction of $614,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 62,553 shares in the company, valued at $5,492,778.93. This trade represents a 10.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 in the last ninety days. 8.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $88.24 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.63, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.54. The company’s 50-day moving average is $79.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.15. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1-year low of $58.09 and a 1-year high of $89.86.

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

Monster Beverage announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.