Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Monster Beverage Corp (MNST)

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 867 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST).

Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) was in 42 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 50. Our calculations also showed that MNST isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind let’s check out the recent hedge fund action surrounding Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST).

Do Hedge Funds Think MNST Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 42 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -9% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in MNST over the last 25 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $614.2 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Broadwood Capital with a $413.6 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Arrowstreet Capital, AQR Capital Management, and Echo Street Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Broadwood Capital allocated the biggest weight to Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST), around 21.09% of its 13F portfolio. Lakehouse Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 8.18 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MNST.

Seeing as Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) has experienced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their positions entirely in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management sold off the biggest investment of the 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $75.4 million in stock, and Graham F. Smith’s Franklin Street Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $2.3 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST). We will take a look at EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG), Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW), IHS Markit Ltd. (NASDAQ:INFO), Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), IQVIA Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:IQV), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), and BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble MNST’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 53.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3334 million. That figure was $2134 million in MNST’s case. Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MNST is 49.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and surpassed the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately MNST wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); MNST investors were disappointed as the stock returned -5.7% since the end of September (through 11/30) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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