UniSuper Management Pty Ltd Increases Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 68,438 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,928 shares during the quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $4,607,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage during the second quarter worth approximately $544,584,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 4,877.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,283,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,262,000 after purchasing an additional 7,137,552 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Monster Beverage by 467.0% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,849,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $422,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641,160 shares in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $157,063,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1,126.9% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,121,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,907,000 after buying an additional 1,948,827 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MNST has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Monster Beverage from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 target price on Monster Beverage and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $76.62.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of MNST opened at $82.00 on Monday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $45.70 and a fifty-two week high of $82.19. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.66. The company has a market capitalization of $80.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.46.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.76% and a net margin of 21.65%.The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total transaction of $2,741,782.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 21,993 shares in the company, valued at $1,568,760.69. This represents a 63.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 274,981 shares of company stock valued at $20,138,516. Company insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage 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.