Why Monster Beverage Stock Popped 8.6% Higher Friday Morning
Is Monster Beverage living up to its name? Here's why the stock sparkled on Friday morning.
Shares of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST) fizzed and sparkled on Friday morning. A robust earnings report lit a fire under the energy drink veteran's stock, driving it as much as 8.6% higher in the morning session. Monster calmed down to a 6.2% gain by noon ET.
I called Monster's fourth-quarter report "robust," not "fantastic." With revenues growing 4.7% year over year to $1.81 billion, the company beat Wall Street's consensus estimate by a rounding error. On the bottom line, Monster's $0.38 of earnings per share fell short of the $0.40 analyst target.
These results are adjusted, removing the impact of some significant headwinds. Chiefly, it recorded $130.7 million of goodwill impairment charges to account for disappointing results in the alcoholic brands segment. Without these adjustments, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings fell 20% year over year to $0.28 per share.
