Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 6,824 Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,589,661 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,824 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.47% of Monster Beverage worth $351,889,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,844,000 after buying an additional 21,169 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,605,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,303,000 after buying an additional 116,510 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage in the third quarter valued at about $59,170,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 880,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,738,000 after buying an additional 95,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after buying an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of MNST stock opened at $88.54 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $79.94 and a 200 day moving average of $78.53. The stock has a market cap of $86.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a twelve month low of $58.09 and a twelve month high of $90.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The company 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%.Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Argus increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $100.00 price objective on Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.05.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total transaction of $614,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 62,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,492,778.93. This trade represents a 10.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total value of $4,633,740.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 299,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.