Monster Stock Swells After Reporting Estimate-Shattering Fourth Quarter Earnings

Monster CanShares of Monster Beverage Corp. were up more than 13 percent Friday morning, following an impressive fourth quarter earnings report released Thursday. For the quarter, Monster reported an adjusted profit of 72 cents per share, beating out analysts’ estimates by more than 22 percent.

In a conference call with investors, Monster CEO Rodney Sacks said the company achieved gross sales of $696.3 million in the three month period ending 12/31/14, a 12.1 percent increase from last year’s $621.1 million. Sacks credited the company’s performance to strong sales of its Original Monster Green energy drink, Java Monster and Zero Ultra. The company’s CEO also pointed to significant growth overseas. Driven by success in Europe and Japan, Monster increased its gross sales outside the United States to $160.1 million, up 16.1 percent from last year’s fourth quarter.

In a Wells Fargo Securities report, analyst Bonnie Herzog wrote that she expects Monster’s international sales to continue to grow by way of its distribution partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, a deal which is expected to close sometime in the second quarter of the year. Herzog did however note, that there “could be some minor bumps in the transition of Anheuser-Busch territories to Coca-Cola’s distribution network.”

Yesterday’s earnings report marks the fourth consecutive quarter of better than anticipated results for Monster, which has consistently been one of the best performing stocks on the NASDAQ for the last 15 years.