WCG Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $866,000 in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Key Points

• WCG Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter, acquiring 11,290 shares valued at about $866,000.
• Several analysts turned more bullish on Monster Beverage, with firms including Rothschild & Co Redburn, Piper Sandler, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo raising price targets; the stock now has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target of $89.05.
• Monster reported strong quarterly results, including EPS of $0.58 versus the $0.53 estimate and revenue of $2.32 billion, and its board approved a $500 million share buyback.

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,290 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $866,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.4% during 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 buying an additional 21,169 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 7.8% during 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 buying an additional 116,510 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,738,000 after buying an additional 95,606 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after buying an additional 2,122,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its holdings in Monster Beverage by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 357,025 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,031,000 after buying an additional 57,389 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of Monster Beverage from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $103.00 price objective on shares of Monster Beverage and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $87.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $89.05.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $89.55 on Friday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1 year low of $58.09 and a 1 year high of $90.44. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $80.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.60. The company has a market cap of $87.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.26, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.54.

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

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the sale, the director owned 299,246 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was 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 approximately $6,152,959.62. The trade was a 12.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock valued at $13,730,462 in the last quarter. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage Company 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.

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.