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Today's Featured News Monster Is Re-Energized: Can the Stock's Rally Continue?Written by Leo Miller. Published 8/20/2025. 
Key Points - Monster Beverage shares have outpaced the market significantly over the past 52 weeks.
- The rebounding sales growth and improving profitability are going a long way to drive shares higher.
- However, can the stock's recent rally continue, as what should investors make of Monster stock long-term?
Over the past 52 weeks, one of the strongest large-cap stocks in the consumer staples sector has been Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST). As of the August 19 close, its shares are up roughly 37%, far outpacing the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLP)'s ~5% total return and the S&P 500's ~17% total return. Over that period, Monster ranks as the fourth-best performer among S&P 500 consumer staples stocks. But with such gains comes a key question: can Monster sustain its outperformance? We examine that below. Monster's Sales Growth and Profitability Stage a Recovery This company is the lifeblood of AI data centers, yet almost no one has caught up with the story. Their hardware is so essential that the data center industry uses enough of it to stretch around the world 8 times – in a single building! So, if you own Nvidia stock now, you might be well-served to sell those shares and check out this under-the-radar play instead. Or if you missed the boat on Nvidia, this is a rare second chance to target tremendous profit potential as AI data centers spring up in every corner of the world. Get my full take on this exciting play right here… A key driver behind the rally is Monster's turnaround from decelerating to accelerating revenue growth. Its quarterly growth rate slipped from 14% in Q4 2023 to just 1% in Q3 2024, then reaccelerated to 5% in Q4 2024. After a 2% sales decline in Q1 2025, Monster bounced back with 11% growth in Q2, posting an all-time high quarterly revenue of $2.1 billion (source). The company has also pushed its profitability closer to pre-pandemic levels. In Q2, gross margins reached 55.7%—up 210 basis points year-over-year, 320 basis points from Q2 2023 and 460 basis points from Q1 2022. Before the pandemic, margins were near 60%. Meanwhile, an aggressive share-buyback program launched in early 2021 has helped drive adjusted earnings per share to a record $0.52 in Q2. Since the buybacks began, Monster has spent roughly $5.2 billion repurchasing stock. Yet over that same span, the share price has returned only about 38%, lagging the S&P 500's 82% return. Monster's U.S. business remains dominant, but its international segment—41% of net sales in Q1—grew over 16% year-over-year. The company's small alcohol division, which makes up around 2% of revenue, has seen consistent sales declines, but its impact on the overall business is minimal. Updated Price Targets Suggest Upside Is Ahead The MarketBeat-tracked consensus price target for MNST sits just above $65, implying less than 2% upside from the August 19 close. However, analysts' forecasts updated after the August 7 earnings report paint a brighter picture. The post-earnings average target is $69.50, suggesting nearly 9% upside. Because Monster operates in the mature beverage industry, its price targets tend to track its share price closely. That stability stands in contrast to high-growth tech names, where rapid change can lead to wide divergences between price and target. Still, competition remains a factor. Celsius (NASDAQ: CELH) has multiplied its quarterly revenue almost ninefold from Q2 2021 to Q2 2025, in part due to a $550 million investment from PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), which provided access to Pepsi's distribution network. Monster, in turn, benefits from its partnership with Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO). MNST: Further Energy Drink Acceleration Could Extend Rally; Long-Term Prospects Less Certain As of the August 19 close, Monster trades at a forward P/E of 32×, roughly in line with its three-year average. The stock has peaked near 40× forward P/E over that period, suggesting room for more near-term upside if energy drink sales continue to accelerate (earnings transcript). However, Monster's heavy reliance on energy drinks—and limited success expanding into other categories—could cap its long-term upside. Without new growth drivers beyond its core market, sustained outperformance may prove challenging.
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