Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Purchased by Prudential PLC

Prudential PLC boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 179.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 319,832 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 205,545 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $24,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,844,000 after buying an additional 21,169 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,303,000 after buying an additional 116,510 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at approximately $59,170,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,738,000 after buying an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after buying an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MNST has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Evercore boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.05.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Monster Beverage stock opened at $88.54 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $58.09 and a 12 month high of $90.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.59 billion, a PE ratio of 42.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.54.

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

Monster Beverage declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In other news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total transaction of $857,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 71,763 shares in the company, valued at $6,152,959.62. This represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the sale, the director owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,678,299.26. This trade represents a 15.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 over the last 90 days. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage Company Profile

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.