Smith Group Asset Management LLC Takes Position in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $291,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 37.1% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of Monster Beverage in the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MNST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $63.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Monster Beverage

In other news, Director Mark Vidergauz sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.73, for a total value of $637,300.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 51,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,262,402.43. This represents a 16.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 8.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of MNST stock opened at $69.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $68.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $65.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.63. Monster Beverage Corporation has a one year low of $45.70 and a one year high of $70.72.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 20.54% and a return on equity of 27.46%. The company’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS 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.