Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Zacks Research downgraded Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Bank of America increased their target price on Monster Beverage from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore boosted their price target on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.90.

Monster Beverage Stock Down 5.0%

Shares of MNST stock opened at $81.06 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $80.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.65. Monster Beverage has a 52 week low of $53.90 and a 52 week high of $87.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.20 billion, a PE ratio of 41.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other Monster Beverage news, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the company’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 $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $15,197,433.94. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 136.7% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 355 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 508.1% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Monster Beverage during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Access Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

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.