TD Private Client Wealth LLC Lowers Position in Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST)

TD Private Client Wealth LLC lowered its stake in shares of Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ:MNST) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,423 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,101 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC’s holdings in Monster Beverage were worth $916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MNST. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in Monster Beverage by 62.5% in the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 13,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $714,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 6,991 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Monster Beverage by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 46,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,422,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc grew its holdings in shares of Monster Beverage by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,340 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MNST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BNP Paribas reduced their price target on shares of Monster Beverage from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Monster Beverage from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Monster Beverage from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Monster Beverage from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Monster Beverage from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Monster Beverage news, CFO Thomas J. Kelly sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total transaction of $552,700.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,273 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,994,528.71. This represents a 12.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Emelie Tirre sold 91,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.38, for a total transaction of $5,057,080.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 76,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,220,011.38. The trade was a 54.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 208,316 shares of company stock valued at $11,484,440 in the last quarter. Insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

Monster Beverage Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ MNST opened at $57.31 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $55.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 3.13 and a quick ratio of 2.51. Monster Beverage Co. has a 12 month low of $43.32 and a 12 month high of $60.13. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $51.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.11.

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. Monster Beverage had a return on equity of 23.31% and a net margin of 21.66%. As a group, research analysts predict that Monster Beverage Co. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.