8,292 Shares in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST Purchased by Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 8,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.4% during 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. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 7.8% during 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. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 12.2% during 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. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.2% during 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. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 19.2% during the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 357,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,031,000 after buying an additional 57,389 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.81, for a total value of $614,670.00. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 88,700 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.96, for a total value of $7,624,652.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 81,763 shares in the company, valued at $7,028,347.48. This represents a 52.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 159,700 shares of company stock worth $13,730,462. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MNST. Citigroup raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $100.00 price objective on Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Monster Beverage presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.05.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $88.47 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $86.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12 month low of $58.09 and a 12 month high of $90.44. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $80.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.76.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management 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.