Swedbank AB Raises Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 395,044 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,430 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $30,288,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,980,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,080,000 after buying an additional 497,108 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after buying an additional 2,789,273 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,675,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,885,000 after buying an additional 692,192 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 8,175,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $547,444,000 after buying an additional 891,804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,867,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $529,551,000 after buying an additional 95,919 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total transaction of $614,670.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 62,553 shares in the company, valued at $5,492,778.93. The trade was a 10.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 81,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,028,347.48. This represents a 52.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462 over the last quarter. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MNST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Evercore raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Argus raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective (up from $96.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.89.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

Monster Beverage stock opened at $86.79 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $77.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.34. The company has a market capitalization of $84.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.93, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.50. Monster Beverage Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $58.09 and a fifty-two week high of $88.77.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its quarterly 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. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The company had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. Monster Beverage’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Friday, May 15th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.