Argus Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Stock

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its target price boosted by analysts at Argus from $95.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Argus’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 27.21% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on MNST. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $96.00 price objective (up from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Monster Beverage from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.14.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MNST opened at $78.61 on Tuesday. Monster Beverage has a 52 week low of $54.00 and a 52 week high of $87.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.79. The firm has a market cap of $76.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.44.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.02. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 27.38% and a net margin of 22.97%.The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $15,197,433.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.31, for a total value of $2,199,300.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 63,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,687,368.09. This represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 8.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Monster Beverage

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MNST. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in Monster Beverage by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 6,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 4,071 shares of the company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 444 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earned Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

About Monster Beverage

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.