In this piece, we will take a look at the ten fastest growing energy drink stocks in the U.S. If you want to skip our overview of the global energy drink industry and the latest trends, then you can take a look at 5 Fastest Growing Energy Drink Stocks in the US.
For decades humans have been discovering ways to enhance their performance. Whether its academia, business, sports, or medicine, the use of both natural and synthetic substances is common to alter the chemistry of the human body. Natural substances such as coffee power up global workforces to an extent that America's biggest coffee chain, Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), is worth a whopping $105 billion on the stock market. Similarly, anabolic steroids are some of the most watched out substances when it comes to high performance sports such as basketball, weight lifting, or football.
However, while most coffee requires milk and steroids require a prescription, another commonly consumed drink by truckers and college students alike is an energy drink. Energy drinks come in a variety of flavors and variants, and they can be stocked well in advance to allow 'binge' drinking for the really ambitious. Some common substances found in energy drinks are caffeine and taurine, with the latter often being exclusive to energy drinks or other carbonated beverages instead of being also found in, say, coffee.
Over the years, the global energy drink industry has also grown from being limited to a few players to seeing greater focus from big players such as The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP). With market capitalizations of $258 billion and $228 billion, they are among the biggest companies in the world that demonstrate that no matter how popular coffee is, at the end of the day a diversified business model can cater to tight consumer budgets during an economic contraction are still perceived to be worth more by both professional and retail investors.
Yet one of the most popular energy drink brands in the world, i.e. Red Bull, is private. Red Bull's advertisement campaigns have seen it associate its brand name with high risk activities such as the highest altitude parachute jump in the world and customized sports car racing, and when compared to its American counterpart Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST), it can be safely assumed that Red Bull has a far greater brand reach.
Delving deeper into the current performance and environment of the energy drink industry, these companies tend to thrive the most when consumers have more money to spend. After all, while energy drinks are popular, they still are not essential daily use products such as toilet paper and toothpaste. However, they cannot be purely classified as cyclical either, especially since a lot of energy drink users consume them daily and might skip out on other purchases to keep up their consumption during tough economic times. As an example, consider research published in the BMC Public Health journal. It used data from 266 commercial bus drivers, a physically intensive job that can require hours of sustained concentration to safely operate a vehicle to show that 32% of the drivers drank seven to ten bottles of energy drinks a week - or more than one bottle a day. Additionally, three quarters believed that drinking energy drinks would improve their work performance, and the majority were unaware of any adverse health effects.
Shifting towards the corporate side of things, a brief look at the latest financial results of Monster Beverage and Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH) is warranted. Both of them had missed analyst EPS estimates for their fourth quarter of 2022 financials, but since then, they have either met or beaten them. During the third quarter of 2023, Celsius's revenue grew by a whopping 104% annually to sit at $385 million. The corresponding press release highlighted that these gains came on the back of an improved logistics chain that increased product availability and allowed the firm to drive up sales. Monster, a bigger company, also marked revenue growth during the quarter, as its revenue grew by 14.3% to sit at $1.86 billion.
According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period until October 8, 2023, Monster’s retail market share in value as compared to the same period the previous year grew from 30.5% to 31.3% in France, from 29.9% to 32.4% in Great Britain, from 5.4% to 5.6% in the Netherlands, from 31.6% to 34.7% in Norway and from 40.3% to 40.5% in Spain. According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period until the end of September 2023, Monster’s retail market share in value as compared to the same period the previous year grew from 15.6% to 18.4% in Germany, Monster’s retail market share in value as compared to the same period of the previous year remained flat at 31.6% in Italy, Monster’s retail market share value as compared to the same period the previous year declined from 19% to 18.4% in Poland and from 19.8% to 17.9% in South Africa.
With these details in mind, let's take a look at some of the fastest growing energy drink stocks in the U.S.
10 Fastest Growing Energy Drink Stocks in the US
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Our Methodology
To compile our list of the ten fastest growing energy drink stocks in the U.S., we ranked the 12 stocks part of our coverage of the 12 Biggest Energy Drink Stocks in the US and tertiary energy drink stocks by their five year or all time share price performance. Out of these, the energy drink stocks that grew the fastest were chosen.
For these stocks we have also mentioned hedge fund sentiment. Hedge funds’ top 10 consensus stock picks outperformed the S&P 500 Index by more than 140 percentage points over the last 10 years (see the details here). That’s why we pay very close attention to this often-ignored indicator.
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 36 Share Price Performance: 6,169% Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) is an American firm that serves the needs of the energy drink industry by providing aluminum beverage cans. The shares are rated Buy on average, and the average analyst share price target is $61.50. As of September 2023 end, 36 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had bought and owned the firm's shares. Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)'s biggest investor among these is Israel Englander's Millennium Management as it holds $66.4 million worth of shares.
Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH) is an American beverage company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. It sells energy drinks that help with muscle recovery. Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH)'s strong share price and financial performance over the past several months have also impressed analysts as they have set an average share price rating of Strong Buy and an average share price target of $72.26 for the firm.
During Q3 2023, 35 out of the 910 hedge funds covered by Insider Monkey's research had bought and owned Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH)'s shares. Paul Marshal and Ian Wace's Paul Marshall And Ian Wace was the firm's largest hedge fund investor as it owned a $186 million stake.
Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) is another well known energy drink company primarily because of the Monster energy drink that is Red Bull's biggest competitor in the U.S. The firm grew its revenue by double digit percentages in 2023's third quarter, as higher prices and dropping inflation helped it financially.
During the same time period, 42 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database were the firm's shareholders. Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST)'s biggest investor out of these is Neal C. Bradsher's Broadwood Capital courtesy of its $450 million investment.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is one of the biggest carbonated beverage companies in the world. January 2024 is proving to be a hot month for the firm when it comes to competition as PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)'s main rival Coca-Cola has launched a new product to compete with the Gatorade functional and energy drink.
As of September 2023 end, 65 out of the 910 hedge funds covered by Insider Monkey's research had bought a stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP). Ken Fisher's Fisher Asset Management was the largest shareholder since it owned 7.9 million shares that are worth $1.3 billion.
Where there's Pepsi, there's Coke and that's also the case with our list of the fastest growing energy drink stocks in the U.S. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) needs no introduction, and 2024 is seeing the firm maintain its rivalry with Pepsi through the freshly launched BodyArmor Zero Sugar sports drink.
Insider Monkey dug through 910 hedge funds for their September quarter of 2023 shareholdings and found that 57 were the firm's shareholders. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)'s largest investor in our database is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway due to its $22.3 billion investment.
