The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Consumer Defensive company by 0.53% to 29.62 million shares with purchase of 0.16 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.68% valued currently at $3.01 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 1.11 million to 17.48 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 1.13% or 0.19 million shares – to 17.14 million shares.
With over 1.93 million Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $100.32 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $193.36 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 8.54% and its price on 03/13/23 gained nearly 0.15%. Currently, there are 522.33M common shares owned by the public and among those 372.38M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 24 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MNST have a consensus price objective of $111.45. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $125.00 and a low of $88.00. The average price target is 9.04% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -14.0% over that period. But an upside of 19.74% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $112.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 46 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 31 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 266,068 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 15 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 348,327 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Monster Beverage Corporation are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Invesco QQQ Trust. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 11.2 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.14 billion. The company bought an additional 90450.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.15% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 20875.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 8.82 million shares valued at over $897.94 million and representing 1.69% of the shares outstanding. Invesco QQQ Trust sold 23606.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 6.77 million shares at a value of $688.55 million. Invesco QQQ Trust now owns shares totaling to 1.30% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) opened at $99.94, down -$0.23 from a prior closing price of $100.17. However, the script later moved the day high at 102.28, up 0.15%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.52% and -1.20% over the past three months. MNST shares are trading -1.19% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 33.07% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $73.09 and touched a high of $105.45 over the same period. MNST has an average intraday trading volume of 1.98 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -2.28%, -1.86%, and 4.83% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) shares accounts for 69.00% of the company’s 522.33M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 25.37%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.18% and 10.02% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $53.37B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.85. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 44.89, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $2.23. The company has a PEG of 1.75 and a Quick Ratio of 3.80 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.08% over the week and 1.77% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) will achieve an EPS of $0.63 for the current quarter, $0.68 for the next quarter and $3.03 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.58 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.66. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.6 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -13.10%, and 17.82% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 25.66% over the next five years, compared to 8.40% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 24 brokerage firm advisors rate Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.20. Specifically, 14 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 7 of the 24 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the MNST, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Redburn stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on March 06, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $120. Wells Fargo coverage for the Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) stock in a research note released on March 01, 2023 offered a Overweight rating with a price target of $113. Truist was of a view on March 01, 2023 that the stock is Buy, while Morgan Stanley gave the stock Overweight rating on March 01, 2023, issuing a price target of $117- $115. JP Morgan on their part issued Overweight rating on March 01, 2023.
