Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) in a research report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $64.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $63.00 to $57.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Monster Beverage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Monster Beverage from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $66.00 to $59.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $61.00 to $60.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $60.05.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of MNST stock opened at $49.16 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $51.98 and a 200 day moving average of $55.16. Monster Beverage has a 1 year low of $47.13 and a 1 year high of $61.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.76.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 22.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Monster Beverage will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Monster Beverage news, CEO Hilton H. Schlosberg sold 42,144 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $2,233,632.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,875,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99,404,574. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Hilton H. Schlosberg sold 42,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total transaction of $2,233,632.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,875,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99,404,574. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark J. Hall sold 250,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.22, for a total transaction of $13,055,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 532,754 shares in the company, valued at $27,820,413.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 307,221 shares of company stock worth $16,070,374. 7.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the 4th quarter valued at about $517,035,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,515,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,033,323,000 after purchasing an additional 3,296,466 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,478,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $603,659,000 after purchasing an additional 3,026,657 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 143.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,209,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $184,921,000 after buying an additional 1,893,064 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 34.1% during the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,859,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,082,000 after buying an additional 1,234,718 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Monster Beverage Company Profile

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.