Jon Quast, The Motley Fool

Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 1:07 AM5 min read

• Monster Beverage has grown its top line at a 20% compound annual growth rate for 30 years, helping it become the top stock over that time.

• Its growth is now challenged, seemingly limiting the stock's upside. But investors can't forget about an important ace up its sleeve.

• 10 stocks we like better than Monster Beverage ›

I've written articles with today's headline multiple times. In the past, I've highlighted under-the-radar companies that have crushed the returns of the S&P 500 over the long term, including companies such as Casella Waste Systems, Comfort Systems USA, and Axon Enterprise. Over the last 10 years, this trio is each up about 2,000% compared to just a 182% return for the S&P 500.

I'm back at it today with another market-crushing stock idea that simply doesn't get enough attention. And when it comes to monster stocks of the past 20 years, I can think of no better candidate than Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST) stock itself -- it's up more than 7,000% over the last two decades.

As of this writing, Monster stock is up 20% in 2025 compared with a 2% gain for the S&P 500. So Monster is back to beating the market and is worth looking at with fresh eyes.

Monster stock is the top publicly traded company of the last 30 years, according to MacroTrends. And the reason is simple: Its growth has been spectacular. In 1994, the company generated just $29 million in full-year revenue. In 2024, that number was $7.5 billion -- roughly a 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over 30 years.

It went public in 1990 as Hansen Natural, a fruit juice business. In 1997, it launched its first energy drink back when there really wasn't even an energy-drink category. The Monster brand eventually came in 2002 and the company never looked back.

Monster was profitable early and consistently. From 2000 through 2010, the company was profitable the entire time and averaged a profit margin of about 11%. This was during a red-hot growth phase in which the brand went nationwide and worldwide.

With those profits, Monster has bought back a lot of stock -- the share count is down about 20% over the last nine years. And it's also diversified its business by buying other companies, such as in 2022 when it acquired the craft beer company now known as Monster Brewing Company.

With growth, profits, and shareholder friendly moves, Monster stock has been, well, a monster stock over the long term.

As mentioned at the beginning, Monster stock is crushing the S&P 500 again in 2025. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, sales growth has slowed, which dropped the stock down to an unusually low price-to-sales (P/S) valuation of about 7 at the start of the year -- it usually trades closer to 8 or 9. But an acceleration in its growth rate in April boosted investor confidence and consequently boosted the valuation back to normal.