Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,108,400 shares of the company’s stock after selling 101,100 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.22% of Monster Beverage worth $141,916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after acquiring an additional 2,122,685 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Monster Beverage by 2.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,188,004,000 after purchasing an additional 900,479 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 1.5% during the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,656,847,000 after purchasing an additional 385,692 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 4.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,165,292,000 after buying an additional 742,518 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 20.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,983,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,001,000 after buying an additional 1,829,064 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.1%

Monster Beverage stock opened at $75.72 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.10. The stock has a market cap of $73.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.00 and a 12-month high of $87.38.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. Monster Beverage’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at $4,687,368.09. This trade represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MNST. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Argus boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.14.

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.