Analyst: Monster Beverage Still No. 1, Sales Poised To Re-Accelerate

Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating on Monster Beverage Corporation MNST, saying the company’s sales are set to re-accelerate in FY 2017.

Monster Beverage reported strong fourth quarter organic sales growth of nearly 15 percent with EPS of $0.30 that was in line with expectations.

Investors were cautious heading in to the print due to the slowing US energy category trends. But, the strong quarterly results should provide investors with some degree of comfort that the story remains in-tact.

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The brokerage termed 2016 as a transition year in which the company terminated contracts with existing distributors and agree on commercial terms with the individual Coke bottlers around the world.

“Despite slower US category growth, we expect the company's organic sales to accelerate to 15 percent in FY17 from 13 percent last year driven by innovation in adjacent categories (Mutant, Hydro, and Caffe Monster), extension into the on-premise channel, and accelerated international expansion,” analyst Laurent Grandet wrote in a note.

Shares of Monster Beverage closed Wednesday’s trading at $42.01. In the pre-market hours Thursday, the stock climbed 13.90 percent to $47.85. Grandet has a price target of $59.