Janus Henderson Group PLC Decreases Stock Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Key Points

• Janus Henderson Group cut its Monster Beverage stake by 32.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 5.57 million shares and leaving it with about 11.62 million shares worth roughly $884.3 million.
• Monster Beverage insiders also sold shares recently, including CFO Thomas J. Kelly and insider Emelie Tirre, while overall insider selling totaled 178,700 shares last quarter.
• The company posted strong quarterly results with EPS of $0.58 and revenue of $2.32 billion, and it also announced a $500 million share buyback. Analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy with an average target price of $89.35.

Janus Henderson Group PLC lessened its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report) by 32.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,622,968 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,565,130 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 1.19% of Monster Beverage worth $884,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 397.9% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 15,201 shares of the company's stock valued at $890,000 after purchasing an additional 12,148 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 247.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,986 shares of the company's stock valued at $813,000 after acquiring an additional 9,251 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its position in Monster Beverage by 23.9% in the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the company's stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 1,281 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Monster Beverage by 55.9% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,798 shares of the company's stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Monster Beverage by 151.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 34,075 shares of the company's stock worth $2,134,000 after buying an additional 20,538 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total value of $614,670.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 62,553 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,492,778.93. This trade represents a 10.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total value of $857,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 71,763 shares in the company, valued at $6,152,959.62. This trade represents a 12.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 178,700 shares of company stock worth $15,457,562. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MNST has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Monster Beverage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Evercore upped their target price on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, June 12th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $95.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group set a $100.00 price objective on Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $89.35.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $91.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $89.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.54. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $83.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.67. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52 week low of $58.09 and a 52 week high of $93.92.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) last released its 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 for 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%.The company's revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Monster Beverage announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are 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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MNST? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.