North Dakota State Investment Board Purchases New Shares in Monster Beverage Corporation $MNST

North Dakota State Investment Board purchased a new stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 35,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,700,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 397.9% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $890,000 after buying an additional 12,148 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 247.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 9,251 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 23.9% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 1,281 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 55.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,798 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in Monster Beverage by 151.7% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 34,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,134,000 after buying an additional 20,538 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on MNST shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Monster Beverage from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Evercore raised their price objective on Monster Beverage from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Monster Beverage from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.89.

Monster Beverage Price Performance

MNST opened at $88.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $76.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.78. The firm has a market cap of $86.59 billion, a PE ratio of 42.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.50. Monster Beverage Corporation has a 1 year low of $58.09 and a 1 year high of $88.77.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 23.11%.The firm had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Monster Beverage Corporation will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Monster Beverage declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark J. Hall sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.81, for a total transaction of $4,633,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 299,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,678,299.26. The trade was a 15.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.74, for a total value of $857,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 71,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,152,959.62. This trade represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 159,700 shares of company stock valued at $13,730,462 in the last quarter. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.