Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) from a "buy" to a "hold", but the market consensus remains a Moderate Buy with a $84.14 average price target (14 buys, 8 holds, 1 sell).
• Monster beat Q expectations—EPS $0.51 vs. $0.49 and revenue $2.10B vs. $2.04B, up 17.6% year-over-year—with strong margins and ROE, while the stock trades around $75.61 with a market cap near $73.9B and a P/E of about 39.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Monday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Monster Beverage from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Monster Beverage from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $84.14.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

NASDAQ MNST opened at $75.61 on Monday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $80.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.02. Monster Beverage has a 12 month low of $54.00 and a 12 month high of $87.38. The company has a market capitalization of $73.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. Monster Beverage's quarterly revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the business'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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. The trade was a 31.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 7.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Monster Beverage

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MNST. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake 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 worth $890,000 after acquiring an additional 12,148 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 247.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,986 shares of the company's stock worth $813,000 after acquiring an additional 9,251 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 710.6% during the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 52,407 shares of the company's stock worth $3,283,000 after purchasing an additional 45,942 shares in the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 7.5% during the second quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 6,344 shares of the company's stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 2.2% in the first quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 40,886 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,393,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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