Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Sells 15,256 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lowered its position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,196,998 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,256 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $91,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789,273 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings 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 during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Monster Beverage by 6.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after buying an additional 692,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 11.3% in the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 9,957,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,262,000 after buying an additional 1,013,356 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

MNST stock opened at $71.98 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52 week low of $54.73 and a 52 week high of $87.38. The company has a market capitalization of $70.33 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.44. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.09.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 22.97% and a return on equity of 27.38%. The business’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MNST. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 price target (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Zacks Research cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.95.

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.