Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST)

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports.

MNST has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Argus upped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. BNP Paribas lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.26.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $54.65 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $50.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.18. The firm has a market cap of $53.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.74. Monster Beverage has a 52 week low of $43.32 and a 52 week high of $61.22. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.66% and a return on equity of 23.31%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.65, for a total value of $526,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,944,748.60. This represents a 11.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 7.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth $101,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth $110,942,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth $1,031,000. Finally, Virtue Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth $223,000. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.