Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Invests $55,000 in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Monster Beverage by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,786,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,791,313,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151,175 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,154,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,712,000 after buying an additional 563,353 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 4.9% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 8,944,479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $560,282,000 after buying an additional 418,918 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the first quarter valued at $497,157,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,431,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,901,000 after buying an additional 73,737 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MNST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Thursday. Roth Capital restated a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Monster Beverage has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.05.

Insider Activity at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Mark Vidergauz sold 10,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.73, for a total transaction of $637,300.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 51,191 shares in the company, valued at $3,262,402.43. The trade was a 16.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 8.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNST opened at $69.62 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $67.98 billion, a PE ratio of 43.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.54. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1-year low of $45.70 and a 1-year high of $70.06. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.01.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.46% and a net margin of 20.54%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monster Beverage Profile

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.