UPDATE: Morgan Stanley Initiates Monster Beverage with Overweight on Compelling Entry Point

In a report published Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Dara Mohsenian initiated coverage on Monster Beverage Corp. MNST with an Overweight rating and $65.00 price target. In the report, Mohsenian noted, “We view this as a compelling entry point into MNST after the stock's 66% underperformance vs. beverage peers (-53% vs. the S&P 500) since its mid-June 2012 peak. We expect recent EPS misses vs. consensus to reverse in 2H. More important, long term, we believe the market is not appropriately pricing in MNST's growth potential, particularly given overblown regulatory/legal concerns. From a DCF standpoint, we estimate the market is pricing in 8-9% LT revenue growth vs. our 11% forecast.” Monster Beverage Corp. closed on Monday at $53.83.