Legal & General Group Plc Sells 399,811 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc cut its Monster Beverage stake by 7.0% in the fourth quarter, selling 399,811 shares and leaving it with about 5.3 million shares valued at $407.5 million.
• Monster Beverage reported a strong quarter, posting $0.58 EPS versus the $0.53 consensus and $2.32 billion in revenue, up 22.6% year over year. The company also raised investor confidence by authorizing a $500 million share buyback.
• Analysts remain generally positive on MNST, with multiple firms raising price targets and the stock now carrying a Moderate Buy consensus rating and an average target price of $88.89.

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,315,265 shares of the company's stock after selling 399,811 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.54% of Monster Beverage worth $407,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company's stock valued at $48,844,000 after purchasing an additional 21,169 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Monster Beverage in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $59,170,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company's stock valued at $122,303,000 after purchasing an additional 116,510 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,738,000 after purchasing an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Monster Beverage by 2,436.3% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 57,371 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,862,000 after acquiring an additional 55,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total transaction of $857,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 71,763 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,152,959.62. This trade represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 over the last three months. 8.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MNST opened at $86.79 on Tuesday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 52-week low of $58.09 and a 52-week high of $88.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $77.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.48. The stock has a market cap of $84.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.50.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 23.11% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. Monster Beverage's revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Friday, May 15th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MNST shares. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $100.00 price target (up from $96.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Sunday, May 10th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $88.89.

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.

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.