Ex-dividend dates are very important to dividend investors, since you must purchase a stock prior to its ex-dividend date in order to receive its upcoming dividend payout. For more information, check out Everything Investors Need to Know About Ex-Dividend Dates
Below are seven stocks going ex-dividend on Monday, November 18:
Target
Target Corporation (TGT) offers a dividend yield of 2.58% based on Thursday�� closing price of $66.67 and the company�� quarterly dividend payout of 43 cents. The stock is up 12% year-to-date. Dividend.com currently rates TGT as “Neutral” with a DARS��rating of 3.4 stars out of 5 stars.
Tahoe Resources Inc. operates Escobal mine. The Company owns 100 % interest in Escobal project located in southeastern Guatemalan, approximately 70 kilometer from Guatemala City, near the municipality of San Rafael las Flores. Escobal mine contains silver, gold, lead, and zinc mineralization. In addition, the Company is engaged in the exploration and a review of prospective mineral acquisitions for mining of precious metal.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Luke Jacobi]
Tahoe Resources’ (NYSE: TAHO) Escobal mine is a silver deposit in southeast Guatemala, from which all of the company’s production occurs. Fortunately for Tahoe, the mine is in the southeast of the country, while the quake was most felt on the other side of Guatemala. The company told Benzinga its operations were not at all affected by the earthquake and that just a few tremors were felt.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: ASML Holding N.V. (ASML)
ASML Holding N.V., through its subsidiaries, engages in designing, manufacturing, marketing, and servicing semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers a portfolio of lithography systems for manufacturing semiconductors, integrated circuits, or chips. It primarily provides PAS 5500 product family that comprises wafer steppers, and step and scan systems suitable for the i-line, krypton fluoride, and argon fluoride processing of wafers; TWINSCAN for manufacturing environments for which design resolutions down to 38 nanometers are required; TWINSCAN NXT system to support extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) imaging in various system critical areas; and NXE (EUV) system that utilizes reflective mirrors with a numerical aperture of 0.25. The company operates principally in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, rest of Asia, Europe, and the United States. The company was formerly known as ASM Lithography Holding N.V. and chang ed its name to ASML Holding N.V. in 2001. ASML Holding N.V. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Axler]
We also note there has been a healthy pace of M&A consolidation in the semiconductor capital equipment industry in the past few years. For example, ASML Holdings (ASML) recently acquired Cymer and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO: 8038) acquired FSI International. Lastly, we noted previously that Applied Materials (AMAT) acquired Varian Semiconductor in 2011, a close competitor to Axcelis. Our analysis suggests that the minimum valuation for a company in the industry is 1.2x, 11.0x and 2.2x revenues, EPS, and tangible book value, respectively. Furthermore, the average premium paid to the stock price has been a minimum of 35%.
- [By Corinne Gretler]
ASML Holding NV (ASML) climbed 2.5 percent to 52.55 euros. Europe�� largest semiconductor-equipment supplier posted first- quarter sales of 892 million euros, topping the 874 million-euro analyst estimate. The company also announced a share buyback program of as much as 1 billion euros and said Chief Executive Officer Eric Meurice will step down as of July.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Top decliners in the sector included ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML), off 5 percent, and ADTRAN (NASDAQ: ADTN), down 6.3 percent.
Top Headline
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) reported a net loss in the first quarter. Bank of America posted a quarterly net loss of $276 million, or $0.05 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.5 billion, or $0.10 per share. The results include a pretax litigation expense of $6 billion, or around $0.40 per share after tax.
- [By Brian Womack]
The consolidation among chip-equipment makers mirrors the increasing concentration within their customer base. Intel Corp. (INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) now buy the majority of the production machines deployed by the industry, making the earnings of their suppliers more volatile. Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV (ASML), Europe�� biggest chipmaking-tools supplier, completed its purchase of San Diego-based Cymer Inc. in May to expand in extreme ultraviolet lithography technology.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: Weyco Group Inc.(WEYS)
Weyco Group, Inc. engages in the distribution of men?s foot wear primarily in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South Africa. It offers casual, dress, and fashion shoes. The company offers its products under the brand names of Florsheim, Nunn Bush, Stacy Adams, Umi, Brass Boot, and Nunn Bush NXXT. Weyco Group sells its products to shoe specialty stores, department stores, and clothing retailers. As of December 31, 2010, it owned 35 retail stores in the United States and an Internet business. The company was formerly known as Weyenberg Shoe Manufacturing Company and changed its name to Weyco Group, Inc. in April 1990. Weyco Group, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Weyco Group (Nasdaq: WEYS ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: Athersys Inc.(ATHX)
Athersys, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery and development of therapeutic products in various disease areas in the United States. Its clinical development programs are focused on treating cardiovascular disease, neurological conditions, inflammatory and immune disorders, and other conditions. Its product pipeline includes MultiStem, a novel allogeneic approach to stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine for treating a range of diseases. The company is also involved in the development of novel small molecule compounds for applications in indications, such as obesity and other areas, including the treatment of neurological conditions, and for the modulation of stem cells or related applications in the regenerative medicine area. It has product co-development collaboration with Pfizer Inc. to develop and commercialize MultiStem to treat inflammatory bowel disease for the worldwide market; Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop and commerciali ze MultiStem to treat certain cardiovascular diseases, such as acute myocardial infarction; and RTI Biologics, Inc. to develop and commercialize biologic implants for certain orthopedic applications in the bone graft substitutes market. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Lisa Levin]
Athersys (NASDAQ: ATHX) shares fell 56.04% to reach a new 52-week low of $1.20 on failed trial results for ulcerative colitis.
Posted-In: 52-Week LowsNews Movers & Shakers Intraday Update Markets
- [By Roberto Pedone]
Athersys (ATHX), a biotechnology company, focuses on the research and development activities in the field of regenerative medicine. This stock closed up 2.5% to $1.59 in Thursday's trading session.
Thursday's Range: $1.53-$1.59
52-Week Range: $1.08-$4.33
Thursday's Volume: 128,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 416,142
From a technical perspective, ATHX bounced notably higher here right above some near-term support levels at $1.53 to $1.49 with lighter-than-average volume. This stock has been trending sideways and consolidating for the last two months, with shares moving between $1.49 on the downside and $1.99 on the upside. This spike higher on Thursday is starting to push shares of ATHX within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if ATHX manages to take out Thursday's intraday high of $1.59 to its 50-day moving average of $1.65 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ATHX as long as it's trending above some key near-term support at $1.49 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 416,142 shares. If that breakout kicks off soon, then ATHX will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $1.70 to $1.73, or even $1.78. Any high-volume move above $1.78 will then give ATHX a chance to re-test or possibly take out the upper-end of its recent range at $1.99.
- [By Roberto Pedone]
Athersys (ATHX) is a biopharmaceutical company focused in the field of regenerative medicine. This stock closed up 4% to $1.79 in Thursday's trading session.
Thursday's Range: $1.68-$1.80
52-Week Range: $0.95-$2.42
Thursday's Volume: 270,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 323,188
From a technical perspective, ATHX bounced notably higher here right off its 50-day moving average of $1.67 with decent upside volume. This stock recently pulled back from $1.99 to its 50-day at $1.67. Shares of ATHX may now be down with that pullback, since the stock is starting to trend higher and move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if ATHX manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $1.90 to $1.99 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ATHX as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $1.67 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 323,188 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then ATHX will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $2.16 to $2.25. Any high-volume move above those levels will put its 52-week high at $2.42 into range for shares of ATHX.
- [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of Athersys (NASDAQ: ATHX ) , a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on regenerative medicine, advanced as much as 10% after announcing that it had been granted three new patents for its stem cell and regenerative technologies in Japan.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: National Bank of Canada (NBC)
National Bank of Canada (the Bank) is a bank. The Bank provides integrated financial services to retail, commercial and corporate/institutional clients. The Bank's offerings include securities brokerage, insurance, wealth management, mutual and pension-fund management as well as banking and investment solutions across three business segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, and Financial Markets. The Personal and Commercial segment meets the financial needs of some 2.4 million retail banking clients and approximately 130,000 business clients throughout Canada. The Wealth Management segment includes National Bank Financial Wealth Management and National Bank Direct Brokerage Inc. The Financial Markets segment provides banking and investment banking services. On August 1, 2012, Maple Group Acquisition Corporation (Maple) acquired Alpha Trading Systems Inc., Alpha Trading Systems Limited Partnership and The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By USATODAY 2:27 p.m. EST February 4]
NBC's Winter Olympics app.(Photo: NBC)
You can follow the Sochi games digitally on NBCOlympics.com or on the NBC Sports Live Extra app ��available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. The Live Extra app is free and getting a refresh in time for the Olympics. It also covers other sports NBC is involved in, including the NHL, PGA Tour and Triple Crown Horse Racing.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: Finisar Corporation(FNSR)
Finisar Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets optical subsystems and components that are used to interconnect equipment in short-distance local area networks (LANs), storage area networks (SANs), longer distance metropolitan area networks (MANs), fiber-to-the-home networks, cable television networks, and wide area networks. Its optical subsystems primarily include transmitters, receivers, transceivers, and transponders. The company?s optical subsystems provides the fundamental optical-electrical interface for connecting the equipment used in building networks comprising switches, routers, and file servers in wireline networks, as well as antennas and base stations for wireless networks. It also offers products for switching network traffic from one optical wavelength to another across multiple wavelengths, known as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. The company?s line of optical components principally comprises packaged lasers and photodetec tors used in transceivers for LAN and SAN applications; and passive optical components used in building MANs. It sells its optical products to manufacturers of storage system, networking equipment, and telecommunication equipment or their contract manufacturers through direct sales force and distribution channels in the United States, Malaysia, the People?s Republic of China, and internationally. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Rich Bieglmeier]
[Related -Finisar Corp. (FNSR) Q1 Earnings Preview: Bullish Beats = Big Bucks]
Let's examine the networking & communication devices maker's five year price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio to see how likely $30 is and when it might/if happen.
Top Integrated Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: 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 primarily 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�� Coconut Water, in original and tropical flavors, packaged in re-sealable Tetra Prisma boxes, 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�� 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�� 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 Blend, 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, Monster 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�� 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�� brand sodas, sweetened with cane sugar, and Hansen�� 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�� brand name: Hansen�� Sodas, Hansen�� Diet Sodas and Hansen�� Natural Mixers, as well as Hansen�� Sparkling Waters, 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�� 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�� energy drink product line: Hansen�� Natural Energy Pro, Hansen�� Energy Diet Red and Hansen�� Natural Stamina Pro.
Its fruit juice product line includes Hansen�� Natural Apple Juice, Ha! nsen�� ! 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�� 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�� 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�� 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�� Natural line of multi-vitamin 100% juices to other customers. These 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�� Natural Organic Apple Juice, a 100% USDA Certified Organic Apple Juice with 100% of the USRDA for vitamin C.
Its Hansen�� 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�� 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 vitamin C.
Its Hubert�� Lemonade is a line of premium ready-to-drink lemonades. Hubert�� Lemonade is sweetened with cane sugar and Truvia sweetener. Hubert�� Lemonade i! s all nat! ural and contains no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, or artificial colorings. It offers products under the Hubert�� 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�� 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 colorings. It offers flavors under the Angeleno Aguas Frescas product line: Mango, Melon, Pineapple, Jamaica (Hibiscus) and Tamarindo. Its Hansen�� 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�� 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, Venom, 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�� 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��, Martinelli��, Welch��, Ocean Spray, Tropicana, Minute Maid, Langers, Apple , Eve, Seneca, Northland, Juicy Juice, Old Orchard, Calypso, Simply Lemonade, Minute Maid, Cabana, Tropicana, Newman�� Own, Vita Coco, ZICO and O.N.E.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Levisohn]
Monster Beverage (MNST) has risen 1.4% to $66 after the soft-drink maker reported earnings that beat analyst forecasts but missed on revenue.
Post Holdings�(POST) has plunged 11% to $39.69 after the cereal maker missed earnings forecasts and offered a truly horrific EBITDA forecast.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Barry Lewis/Alamy A flat soda is bad, but for Coca-Cola (KO) investors, a flat stock chart is even worse. The world's largest beverage company's stock is trading marginally higher in 2014, and while that's enough to keep an impressive streak alive -- six consecutive years of higher closing prices -- it's undeniable that Coca-Cola's business is in a funk. Sluggish soda sales that are being barely offset by growth initiatives in new beverage lines are taking a toll on Coca-Cola. Revenue and gross profit declined through the first nine months of 2014, and the former market darling is now cutting costs to keep its profitability on track. Coca-Cola will be laying off as many as 2,000 employees in the coming weeks, sources are telling the Wall Street Journal. The days of shuttling execs around in fancy limos and springing for lavish Wall Street parties are being set aside for now. The stock may be on a six-year winning streak, but Coca-Cola's going to have to bounce back if it wants to stretch that record to seven in 2015. Taking Names We're not drinking soda in this country the way we used to, and that's a problem for more than just Coca-Cola. Industry watcher Beverage Digest has been reporting shrinking consumption in the U.S. for nine consecutive years. An occasional gimmicky rollout blurs the trend. For Coca-Cola, we saw that earlier this year with its "Share a Coke" campaign, which featured cans bearing names or terms of endearment. However, even with that kind of spike, we saw Coca-Cola's case volume shrink 1 percent in this country during the third quarter relative to the same period a year earlier. Coca-Cola may consider itself lucky. Rival PepsiCo (PEP) saw its carbonated-soft-drink volume slip 1.5 percent in North America in its latest quarter. A couple of years ago the concern could've been that folks were bypassing soda in bottles and cans to make carbonated beverages at home, but no one's making that argument now that SodaStream (SODA) is getting
- [By Jeremy Bowman]
After hours, shares of�Monster Beverage� (NASDAQ: MNST ) were scaring away investors, falling 3.5% after reporting earnings. The energy-drink maker beat estimates on the bottom line with a per-share profit of $0.55 against the consensus at $0.49, but sales came in short, increasing 10.7%, to $536.1 million. Analysts had expected revenue of $541.9 million. Operating margin shot up 560 basis points in the quarter to 27.8% as the company avoided $8.3 million in distributor termination expenses and saw selling expenses plummet 280 basis points. Monster was once under scrutiny for the safety of its beverages, but the company seems to have put those concerns in the past as CEO Rodney Sacks reminded investors that more than 10 billion Monster drinks have been safely consumed in the last 12 years. With that storm now behind it, the stock looks like a much safer investment, even with moderating growth.
