Wells Fargo & Company Raises Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) Price Target to $70.00

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) had its price target upped by Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on MNST. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Monster Beverage from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Monster Beverage has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.05.

Monster Beverage Stock Performance

MNST opened at $63.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.42, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.95 and a 200 day moving average of $55.51. Monster Beverage has a fifty-two week low of $43.32 and a fifty-two week high of $64.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 2.51 and a current ratio of 3.13.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. Monster Beverage had a net margin of 21.66% and a return on equity of 23.31%. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. Monster Beverage’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Monster Beverage will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Monster Beverage

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 27,000 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.40, for a total value of $1,711,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,273 shares in the company, valued at $4,391,908.20. This trade represents a 28.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 8,796 shares of Monster Beverage stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.46, for a total transaction of $549,398.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 89,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,590,232.46. This trade represents a 8.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Monster Beverage

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 154,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,101,000 after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares in the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,262,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,340,000 after buying an additional 77,278 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Monster Beverage by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 113,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,985,000 after buying an additional 6,210 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Monster Beverage in the 4th quarter worth about $365,000. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC raised its stake in Monster Beverage by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 228,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,024,000 after purchasing an additional 6,917 shares during the last quarter. 72.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Monster Beverage Company Profile

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other.