Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC Sells 18,718 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Key Points

• Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC cut its stake in Monster Beverage by 75.4% in Q3, selling 18,718 shares and retaining 6,096 shares worth about $421,000.
• Corporate insiders made large sales on Dec. 12: Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares for roughly $15.2 million (avg. $73.58) and Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares, leaving insiders with 7.80% ownership.
• Institutions own 72.36% of MNST (Vanguard holds ~67.48 million shares worth $4.54 billion), and analysts carry a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $84.14.

Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC reduced its holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report) by 75.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,096 shares of the company's stock after selling 18,718 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC's holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $544,584,000. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 4,877.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,283,879 shares of the company's stock valued at $456,262,000 after purchasing an additional 7,137,552 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 467.0% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,849,036 shares of the company's stock valued at $422,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641,160 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company's stock worth $4,542,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Monster Beverage by 1,126.9% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,121,758 shares of the company's stock worth $132,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,948,827 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 7.80% of the company's stock.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $75.72 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $73.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.03, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44. The firm's 50-day moving average is $80.15 and its 200 day moving average is $73.10. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1 year low of $54.00 and a 1 year high of $87.38.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 22.97% and a return on equity of 27.38%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. Monster Beverage's revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MNST. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus 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.

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