Monster Beverage Shares Soar On Earnings Beat

Monster Beverage Corp. shares jumped 12.6% in Friday premarket trading after the company announced earnings that beat expectations. The energy drink company said it had net income of $163.9 million, or 79 cents per share, up from $4.4 million, or 3 cents per share, for the same period last year. The FactSet consensus was 74 cents. Sales totaled $680.2 million, up from $626.8 million, and above the FactSet consensus of $657 million. Due to a partnership with Coca-Cola Company , the comparable first-quarter 2015 results included distributor termination costs of $206 million, $39.8 million in acceleration of deferred revenue, and $3.6 million in other related expenses. Monster Beverage said it's continuing to align with Coca-Cola bottlers internationally and will launch Monster Energy drinks in Australia and New Zealand in May 2016. Monster Beverage shares are down 14.2% for the year so far while the S&P 500 is up 1.6% for the same period.