SMART Wealth LLC Takes $517,000 Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

SMART Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 7,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Monster Beverage by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 6,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $459,000 after purchasing an additional 652 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Monster Beverage by 74.8% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 812,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,837,000 after purchasing an additional 347,630 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Monster Beverage by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 5,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the 1st quarter valued at about $7,289,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 21,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,573,000 after buying an additional 1,016 shares during the period. 72.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MNST shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $87.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a report on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.35.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the sale, the director owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. This trade represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Guy Carling sold 19,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.90, for a total transaction of $1,727,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 21,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,987,346.70. This represents a 46.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 178,700 shares of company stock worth $15,457,562 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

MNST opened at $96.15 on Wednesday. Monster Beverage Corporation has a one year low of $58.09 and a one year high of $97.87. The company has a market cap of $94.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.45, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.54. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.96.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The firm’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.