Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST)

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 5,877 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 105% compared to the average daily volume of 2,860 put options.

Monster Beverage Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Monster Beverage stock traded up $0.08 on Friday, hitting $42.75. 2,213,464 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,279,380. Monster Beverage has a 52-week low of $32.21 and a 52-week high of $50.17. The stock has a market cap of $83.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.63, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $46.06 and its 200 day moving average is $43.49.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.08% and a return on equity of 26.02%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage will post 1.11 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Monster Beverage during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,770,004,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,195,360,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $691,104,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in Monster Beverage during the second quarter worth approximately $593,075,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage in the second quarter worth approximately $478,694,000. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $47.00 to $50.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $45.00 to $52.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley set a $51.50 price target on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Evercore raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $47.50 to $52.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.33.

About Monster Beverage

Monster Beverage Corporation is a beverage company headquartered in Corona, California. It develops, markets and distributes energy drinks and other alternative beverages through a portfolio of brands that includes Monster Energy, Reign, NOS, Full Throttle, Burn and Bang Energy.

The company offers energy drinks in a variety of flavors and formulations, including products positioned for performance, fitness and everyday use. Monster also participates in the alcoholic beverage category through products marketed under the Monster Brewing Company name, including flavored malt beverages and beers.

Monster Beverage traces its roots to Hansen’s, a juice and natural beverage business founded in the 1930s.