Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 414,930 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,135 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $31,601,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Monster Beverage by 467.0% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,849,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $422,996,000 after buying an additional 5,641,160 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,719,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,538,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789,273 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Monster Beverage by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,483,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,542,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122,685 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Monster Beverage by 71.4% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,033,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,765,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,575 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Monster Beverage by 1,126.9% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,121,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,948,827 shares in the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MNST has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research lowered Monster Beverage from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Argus lifted their price target on Monster Beverage from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Monster Beverage from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.76.

Monster Beverage Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Monster Beverage stock opened at $72.37 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $78.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.39. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.73 and a 12-month high of $87.38. The stock has a market cap of $70.77 billion, a PE ratio of 37.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.51.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.