Swedbank AB Decreases Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Key Points

• Swedbank AB reduced its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation by 6.5%, now holding 122,486 shares, valued at approximately $7.67 million.
• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 1.8%, now owning 64,786,624 shares worth about $3.79 billion, while several other institutional investors also bought or sold shares during the same quarter.
• Analysts have mixed opinions on the stock, with target price adjustments ranging from $60.00 to $72.00, and a consensus rating of "Hold".

Swedbank AB decreased its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report) by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 122,486 shares of the company's stock after selling 8,488 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB's holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $7,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage during the first quarter worth $29,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new stake in Monster Beverage during the second quarter worth $38,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 37.1% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 724 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the first quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Monster Beverage from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Redburn Atlantic cut Monster Beverage from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $68.00 price objective on Monster Beverage and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.19.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:MNST traded down $0.15 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $63.98. The company had a trading volume of 4,666,506 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,122,411. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.74, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.54. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $62.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.91. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $45.70 and a 12-month high of $67.13.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.46% and a net margin of 20.54%.Monster Beverage's revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark Vidergauz sold 10,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.73, for a total transaction of $637,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 51,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,262,402.43. The trade was a 16.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 7.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Monster Beverage

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.