Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. Takes $134.43 Million Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,750,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,431,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Monster Beverage by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,080,000 after acquiring an additional 497,108 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Monster Beverage by 8.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after acquiring an additional 2,789,273 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Monster Beverage by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,625,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,509,369,000 after acquiring an additional 330,766 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Monster Beverage by 6.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after acquiring an additional 692,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 8,175,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $547,444,000 after acquiring an additional 891,804 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on MNST shares. Evercore boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 target price (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $87.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded Monster Beverage from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.89.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the director owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 value of $614,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 62,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,492,778.93. The trade was a 10.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462. Company insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $88.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.55, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $78.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.98. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52-week low of $58.09 and a 52-week high of $89.85.

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

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Monster Beverage 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.