Townsquare Capital LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

Townsquare Capital LLC reduced its position in shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) by 59.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,391 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,568 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,360,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,094,207,000 after acquiring an additional 574,275 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 2.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,929,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,004,000 after buying an additional 900,479 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 26,450,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,656,847,000 after buying an additional 385,692 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,680,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,165,292,000 after acquiring an additional 742,518 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,983,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,829,064 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MNST shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $86.00 target price (up previously from $83.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target (up previously from $87.00) on shares of Monster Beverage in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.86.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

Shares of MNST opened at $80.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.46. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1 year low of $45.70 and a 1 year high of $83.24. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.35.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.65% and a return on equity of 27.76%. Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In other news, insider Guy Carling sold 38,438 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.33, for a total transaction of $2,741,782.54. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 21,993 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,568,760.69. This represents a 63.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Rodney C. Sacks sold 206,543 shares of Monster Beverage 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 274,981 shares of company stock worth $20,138,516 in the last three months. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Company 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.