Shares of $MNST Are in BEAST Mode After Big Earnings Beat

Monster Beverage beats by $0.03, beats on revs  (65.31 -0.18)

Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.41 per share, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.38; revenues rose 27.6% year/year to $454.6 mln vs the $447.14 mln consensus. For the 2012 first quarter, gross profit as a percentage of net sales was 53.1 percent, compared with 52.1 percent for the comparable 2011 quarter. Co states, “We are continuing to expand into new international markets and retail sales of Monster Energycommenced in Hong Kong and Macau during April and in Japan and Ecuador earlier this week. We are planning launches in additional international markets later this year…”