Financial Contrast: Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) vs. Vita Coco (NASDAQ:COCO)

Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) and Vita Coco (NASDAQ:COCO) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Monster Beverage and Vita Coco, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Monster Beverage	2	7	13	0	2.50
Vita Coco	0	3	5	0	2.63

Monster Beverage presently has a consensus target price of $62.05, suggesting a potential upside of 0.55%. Vita Coco has a consensus target price of $35.88, suggesting a potential upside of 1.80%. Given Vita Coco’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Vita Coco is more favorable than Monster Beverage.

Profitability

This table compares Monster Beverage and Vita Coco’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Monster Beverage	20.27%	27.46%	20.66%
Vita Coco	11.32%	25.08%	18.00%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

72.4% of Monster Beverage shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.5% of Vita Coco shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.3% of Monster Beverage shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 32.3% of Vita Coco shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Monster Beverage has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vita Coco has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Monster Beverage and Vita Coco”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Monster Beverage	$7.49 billion	8.03	$1.51 billion	$1.52	40.60
Vita Coco	$516.01 million	3.87	$55.95 million	$1.01	34.89

Monster Beverage has higher revenue and earnings than Vita Coco. Vita Coco is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Monster Beverage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Monster Beverage beats Vita Coco on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Monster Beverage

Monster Beverage Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in development, marketing, sale, and distribution of energy drink beverages and concentrates in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, Alcohol Brands, and Other. It offers carbonated non-carbonated energy drinks, 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 waters, and sodas that are considered natural, sparkling juices, and flavored sparkling beverages. The company sells its products to full service beverage bottlers/distributors, retail grocery and specialty chains, wholesalers, club stores, mass merchandisers, convenience chains, food service customers, value stores, e-commerce retailers, and the military; and concentrates and/or beverage bases to authorized bottling and canning operations. It provides its products under the Monster Energy, Monster Energy Ultra, Monster Rehab, Monster Energy Nitro, Java Monster, Punch Monster, Juice Monster, Muscle Monster, Espresso Monster, Monster Tour Water, Fury, Monster MAXX, Caffe Monster, Monster Hydro, Monster HydroSport Super Fuel, Monster Dragon Tea, Reign Total Body Fuel, and Reign Inferno Thermogenic Fuel, Reign Storm, Bang Energy, NOS, Full Throttle, Burn, Mother, Nalu, Ultra Energy, Play and Power Play (stylized), Relentless, BPM, BU, Gladiator, Samurai, Live+, Predator, and Fury brands. The company was formerly known as Hansen Natural Corporation and changed its name to Monster Beverage Corporation in January 2012. Monster Beverage Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Corona, California.

About Vita Coco

The Vita Coco Company, Inc. develops, markets, and distributes coconut water products under the Vita Coco brand name in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers coconut oil and coconut milk; juice; Runa, a plant-based energy drink; packaged water under the Ever & Ever brand name; and PWR LIFT, a protein-infused fitness drink. It also provides private label coconut water and oil to retailers. It distributes its products through club, food, drug, mass, convenience, e-commerce, and foodservice channels. The company was formerly known as All Market Inc. and changed its name to The Vita Coco Company, Inc. in September 2021.The Vita Coco Company, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in New York, New York.