Monster Beverage (MNST)
Forward P/E is 37.05x against a peer median of 14.28x, a ratio of 2.59x — more than two and a half times the peer median — with trailing P/E 42.10x and PEG 3.26. Latest-quarter revenue grew 20.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), fast growth, but at a PEG of 3.26 the price only makes sense if that pace accelerates further and holds for years. Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median growth was 5.8% — demand steady across the group, so the price rests on this one company sustaining exceptional growth, not on a rising market.
What would change this label: Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 28.6x or below (2.00x the peer median) at unchanged estimates. Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E falls to about 16.4x or below (1.15x the peer median), or if earnings growth rises enough to bring the PEG to about 1.5 or below while revenue growth stays above 20% year over year for two quarters.
Monster sells energy drinks, and its sales are growing very fast — about 20% in the latest quarter. Even so, its shares cost more than two and a half times what similar drinks companies cost per dollar of expected profit. The price only works if growth gets even faster and stays there for years, which makes it a bubble price.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Monster Beverage returned +114.24% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Monster Beverage: -26.6% (2021-08-10 to 2022-03-08). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 37.05x against a peer median of 14.28x, a ratio of 2.59x — more than two and a half times the peer median — with trailing P/E 42.10x and PEG 3.26. Latest-quarter revenue grew 20.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), fast growth, but at a PEG of 3.26 the price only makes sense if that pace accelerates further and holds for years. Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median growth was 5.8% — demand steady across the group, so the price rests on this one company sustaining exceptional growth, not on a rising market. The company’s forward P/E is 37.0× against a peer median of 14.3×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 5.8% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Monster grew far faster than that group pace at 20.2%, but its share price assumes even that exceptional pace speeds up. Latest-quarter sales growth was +20.2% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monster Beverage (MNST) | $45.48 | 37.0× | 42.1× |
| MO | $73.68 | 12.8× | 15.5× |
| KDP | $34.68 | 14.3× | 35.0× |
| BF.B | $28.21 | 16.5× | 18.2× |
| STZ | $130.48 | 11.0× | 11.7× |
| PEP | $132.56 | 15.7× | 16.7× |
| Peer median | 14.3× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $2.5B | 56.0% | $585M | — | $461M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $2.4B | 55.0% | $569M | — | $584M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $2.1B | 55.5% | $449M | — | $351M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $2.2B | 55.7% | $524M | — | $702M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $2.1B | 55.7% | $489M | — | $435M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $1.9B | 56.5% | $443M | — | $479M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $1.8B | 55.3% | $271M | — | $370M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $1.9B | 53.1% | $371M | — | $571M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $1.9B | 53.6% | $425M | — | $377M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $1.9B | 54.1% | $442M | — | $346M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $1.7B | 54.2% | $367M | — | $323M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $1.9B | 53.0% | $453M | — | $492M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Monster Beverage Corp |
| Chief executive | Hilton Schlosberg (source: https://www.marketbeat.com/earnings/reports/2026-8-6-monster-beverage-co-stock/) |
| Sector | Consumer Staples — Soft Drinks & Non-alcoholic Beverages — sells Monster energy drinks and other energy and non-alcoholic beverages |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $45.48 |
| Market value (market cap) | $89.0B — share price times shares outstanding of 1,959,051,764 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $9.2B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.1B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.1B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +114.24% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -26.6% (2021-08-10 to 2022-03-08) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Market value uses a split-adjusted share count: Monster Beverage completed a 2-for-1 stock split (100% stock dividend) with split-adjusted trading from August 11, 2026; the EDGAR dei shares-outstanding count dated July 31, 2026 predates the distribution and was doubled for the market-value calculation. Per-share earnings figures in filings made before the split are pre-split amounts.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Share count is split-adjusted for the 2-for-1 split of August 2026; per-share figures in earlier filings are pre-split amounts.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000865752.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000865752.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/MNST/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.