Top Beverage Stocks To Buy For 2015

Top Beverage Stocks To Buy For 2015: Monster Beverage Corp (MNST)

Monster Beverage Corporation, formerly Hansen Natural Corporation, incorporated on April 25, 1990,is a holding company. The Company develops, markets, sells and distributes alternative beverage. The alternative beverage category combines non-carbonated ready-to-drink iced teas, lemonades, juice cocktails, single-serve juices and fruit beverages, ready-to-drink dairy and coffee drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, and single-serve still water (flavored, unflavored and enhanced) with new age beverages, including sodas that are considered natural, sparkling juices and flavored sparkling beverages. It has two reportable segments, namely Direct Store Delivery (DSD), whose principal products comprise energy drinks, and Warehouse (Warehouse), whose principal products comprise juice-based and soda beverages. The DSD segment develops, markets and sells products primarily through an exclusive distributor network, whereas the Warehouse segment develops, markets and sells products pr imarily directly to retailers. Corporate and unallocated amounts that do not relate to the DSD or Warehouse segments specifically, have been allocated to Corporate and Unallocated.

During the year ended December 31, 2012, it continued to expand its existing product lines and flavors and further develop its distribution markets. In particular, it continued to focus on developing and marketing beverages that fall within the category generally described as the alternative beverage category. During the year ended December 31, 2012, it introduced a number of new products, including Monster Rehab Tea + Orangeade + Energy, a non-carbonated energy drink with electrolytes, Monster Energy Zero Ultra, a carbonated energy drink which contains zero calories and zero sugar, bermonster Energy Brew, a non-alcoholic energy drink, manufactured using a brewed fermentation process,! Hansen's Coconut Water, in original and tropical flavors, packaged in re-sealable Tetra Prisma boxe s, Peace Tea Cranberry, Pink Lemonade and Texas-Style Sweet ! Tea, ready-to-drink iced teas, Monster Cuba-Lima, a carbonated lime flavored non-alcoholic energy drink, Monster Energy Dub Edition Baller's Blend, a carbonated punch + energy drink and Monster Energy Dub Edition Mad Dog, a carbonated punch + energy drink.

DSD Segment

Monster Energy Drinks offers products under the Monster Energy drink product line: Monster Energy, Lo-Carb Monster Energy, Monster Energy Assault, Monster Khaos, Monster M-80 (named Ripper in certain countries), Monster MIXXD, Monster Energy Absolutely Zero, Monster Energy Import and Import Light, Monster Energy Dub Edition Baller's Blend, Monster Energy Dub Edition Mad Dog, M3 Monster Energy Super Concentrate energy drinks, bermonster Energy Brew, Monster Energy Zero Ultra and Monster Cuba-Lima.

Java Monster Coffee + Energy Drinks - A line of non-carbonated dairy based coffee + energy drinks. It offers products under the Java Monster product line: Java Monster Kona B lend, Java Monster Loca Moca, Java Monster Mean Bean, Java Monster Vanilla Light, Java Monster Irish Blend and Java Monster Toffee. Monster Energy Extra Strength Nitrous Technology Energy Drinks - A line of carbonated energy drinks containing nitrous oxide. It offer products under the Monster Energy Extra Strength Nitrous Technology product line: Super Dry, Anti Gravity and Black Ice.

-Presso Monster Coffee + Energy Drinks - A line of non-carbonated dairy based coffee + energy drinks. It offers products under the X-Presso Monster coffee + energy drinks product line: X-Presso Monster Hammer and X-Presso Monster Midnite.

Monster Rehab Tea + Energy Drinks - A line of non-carbonated energy drinks with electrolytes. It offers products under the Monster Rehab drink line: Monster Rehab Tea + Lemonade + Energy, Monster Rehab Rojo Tea + Energy, Monst! er Rehab ! Green Tea + Energy, Monster Rehab Protean + Energy and Monster Rehab Tea + Orangeade + Energy.

Worx Energy Energy Shots - A line of energy suppleme! nts which! contains zero calories and zero sugar. It offers products under the Worx Energy energy shot product line: Original Formula and Extra Strength.

Peace Tea Iced Teas - A line of ready-to-drink iced teas. It offers products under the Peace Tea product line: green tea, imported Ceylon tea, sweet lemon tea, razzleberry tea, cranberry tea, pink lemonade tea, Texas-style sweet tea and Caddy Shack tea + lemonade.

Warehouse Segment

Hansen's brand sodas have been a natural soda brand on the West Coast of the United States for more than 30 years and are made with natural flavors. Hansen's brand sodas, sweetened with cane sugar, and Hansen's Diet Sodas, sweetened with Splenda no calorie sweetener and Acesulfame-K, contain no preservatives, sodium, caffeine or artificial colorings. It offers sodas under the Hansen's brand name: Hansen's Sodas, Hansen's Diet Sodas and Hansen's Natural Mixers, as well as Hansen's Sparkling Wate rs, in a variety of flavors.

Its Blue Sky products contain no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, caffeine (other than its Blue Sky energy drinks) or artificial coloring and are made with sugar and natural flavors. It offers products under the Blue Sky product line: Blue Sky Natural Soda, Blue Sky Zero Calorie Sodas (sweetened with Truvia brand stevia extract, an all natural sweetener), Blue Sky Premium Sodas, Blue Sky Organic Natural Sodas, Blue Sky Seltzer Waters, Blue Sky Blue Energy drinks, Blue Sky Zero Calorie Blue Energy drinks, Blue Sky Caf Energy drinks and Blue Sky Recover Energy drinks.

Its original Hansen's energy drinks compete in the functional beverage category, namely, beverages that provide a benefit in addition to simply delivering refreshment. It offers products under the Hansen's energy drink product line: ! Hansen'! s Natural Energy Pro, Hansen's Energy Diet Red and Hansen's Natural Stamina Pro.

Its fruit ju ice product line includes Hansen's Natural Apple Juice, Ha! nsen's ! Natural Grape Juice, White Grape Juice, Pineapple Juice, Apple Grape Juice, Apple Strawberry Juice, Orange Juice, Cranberry Juice, Cranberry-Apple Juice, Cranberry-Grape Juice, Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, and Organic Apple Juice. In March 2012, it added Hansen's Natural Apple Orange Pineapple Juice which contains 100% juice as well as 120% of the United States Recommended Daily Allowances (the USRDA) for vitamin C. It also offer Hansen's Natural Lo-Cal juice cocktails, a line of all natural, low-calorie cocktails in four flavors. The Lo-Cal juice cocktails are sweetened with Truvia sweetener. Hansen's juice products compete in the shelf-stable juice category.

It offers a number of aseptically packed boxed juice products, including its dual-branded multi-vitamin 100% juice line, which itsell in conjunction with Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco) through Costco stores. It offers its Hansen's Natural line of multi-vitamin 100% juices to other customers. T hese multi-vitamin juices contain eleven essential vitamins and six essential minerals and are available in a variety of flavors. In February 2012, it added Hansen's Natural Organic Apple Juice, a 100% USDA Certified Organic Apple Juice with 100% of the USRDA for vitamin C.

Its Hansen's Junior Juice product line is a 100% juice line targeted at toddlers and preschoolers. These juices have added calcium and all flavors contain 100% of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin C. It also offers organic juices as well as Hansen's Organic Junior Water, a lightly flavored reduced calorie beverage, both of which contain 100% of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin C. In addition, it offers Junior Juice Coconut Water Twist, a line of fruit and coconut water juices containing 100% of the daily recommended allowance of vitam! in C.

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Its Hubert's Lemonade is a line of premium ready-to-drink lemonades. Hubert's Lemonade is sweetened with cane sugar and Truvia sweetener. Hubert's Lemonade i! s all nat! ural and contains no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, or artificial colorings. It offers products under the Hubert's Lemonade product line: Strawberry Lemonade, Limeade, Mango Lemonade, Honey Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade and Original Lemonade. It added Cherry Limeade and Blackberry Lemonade flavors to the product line in February 2012 and October 2012, respectively. In July 2012, it introduced 4-count multi-packs of select flavors.

Hubert's Half & Half is sweetened with cane sugar and Truvia sweetener, and contains no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or artificial colorings. Its Fruit and Tea Stix product line is an all-natural, low-calorie powder drink mix line, sweetened naturally with Truvia sweetener. Its Angeleno Aguas Frescas is a line of premium ready-to-drink aguas frescas. Angeleno Aguas Frescas are sweetened with cane sugar and real fruit juice and contain no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, or artificial colorin gs. It offers flavors under the Angeleno Aguas Frescas product line: Mango, Melon, Pineapple, Jamaica (Hibiscus) and Tamarindo. Its Hansen's Natural PRE products include a line of prebiotic and probiotic digestive wellness ready-to-drink beverages and powder drink mixes, containing specially formulated blends by Jarrow Formulas. PRE prebiotic ready-to-drink beverages are sweetened with either cane sugar or stevia. PRE probiotic powder drink mixes are sweetened with cane sugar and stevia. In March 2012, it introduced Hansen's Natural Coconut Water, a line of premium 100% Coconut Waters available in Pure and Tropical flavors.

The Company competes with TCCC, PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo), The Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (the DPS Group), Red Bull Gmbh, Kraft Foods, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Nestle Beverage Company, Tree ! Top Inc. ! (Tree Top), Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. (Ocean Spray), Red Bull, Rockstar, Full Throttle, No Fear, Amp, Adrenaline Rush, NOS, Ven om, Redline, 180, Red Devil, Rip It, Xenergy, 5-Hour Energy ! Shots, Mi! O Energy, Stacker 2, VPX Redline Energy Shots, Red Bull, Rockstar, Burn, V-Energy, Lucozade, Adrenaline Rush, Power Play, Mother, Hell, Shock, Tiger, Boost, Gladiator, TNT, Shark, Hot 6, Nalu, Battery, Bullit, Flash Up, Black, Non-Stop, Bomba, Semtex, Starbucks Frappuccino, Starbucks Double Shot, Starbucks Double Shot Energy Plus Coffee , other Starbucks coffee drinks, Rockstar Roasted, Seattle's Best, illy issimo coffee, Full Throttle Coffee, Arizona, Lipton, Snapple, Nestea, Xing Tea, Honest Tea, Gold Peak Tea, Fuze Tea, the DPS Group, Cott Corporation and National Beverage Corporation, Jones Soda Co., Crystal Geyser, J.M. Smucker Company, Reeds, Inc., Zevia, Tree Top, Mott's, Martinelli's, Welch's, Ocean Spray, Tropicana, Minute Maid, Langers, Apple , Eve, Seneca, Northland, Juicy Juice, Old Orchard, Calypso, Simply Lemonade, Minute Maid, Cabana, Tropicana, Newman's Own, Vita Coco, ZICO and O.N.E.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By abirk] arkets, sells and distributes alternative beverage, such as non-carbonated ready-to-drink iced teas, lemonades, juice cocktails, single-serve juices and fruit beverages.

  Story So Far

  Monster Beverage's "Monster Energy Ultra Red" has become one of the brand's top sellers. This product debuted in September 2013. Its Muscle Monster protein shakes are second in the ready-to-drink protein segment: convenience and gas channels.

  Monster Beverage sells "alternative" beverages under names such as Monster Energy and Muscle Monster. Monster Beverage expanded its revenue, net income, and free cash flow 11%, 50%, and 275%, respectively, in the most recent quarter.

  Global volume increases from its Monster Energy brand and expansion into international markets served as the primary catalysts for the increase in revenu! e. Produc! tion efficiencies and lower expenses stemming from termination of distributors, lower insurance premiums, and lower marketing expenses contributed to gains in net income.

  Favorable changes in operating assets and liabilities, specifically in inventory, accounts receivable, and income taxes payable, contributed to the year-over-year gain in free cash flow.

  When we look at the company's balance sheet, we see $211.35 million in cash and $402.25 million in short-term investments, totaling $613.6 million in liquid assets. This compares nicely with last year's $222.51 million in cash, $97.04 million in short-term investments, totaling $319.55 million in liquid assets. Monster continues to be debt-free, which increases the likelihood that the company will be returning more of its income to investors once its growth starts slowing down further down the line.

  The most important aspect of the Monster Energy brand dominance is that it has allowed the company to expand into other beverage segments, most recently the large protein-drinks category. The company's protein brand, called Muscle Monster, has gotten off to

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Dr. Pepper (DPS) have been trouncing those of Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP) and even Monster Beverage (MNST) this year–but today it’s getting pounded thanks to a Citigroup downgrade.

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