Monster Beverage profit miss, shares fall
Monster Beverage Corp, facing investigations into the safety of its energy drinks, reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit as it stepped up promotional spending.
Shares in Monster, which again rejected the safety concerns as baseless, slid 12 percent in after-hours trading even as the company reported rising sales.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said last month it was investigating reports of five deaths that may be related to Monster Beverage's namesake drinks.
The company is also being sued by the family of a 14-year old Maryland girl with a heart disorder who died after drinking two cans of Monster Energy drink in a 24-hour period.
As well, the company said in August that it had received a subpoena from an unnamed state attorney general related to its ingredients and advertising.
Energy drinks have come under review due to health concerns surrounding high concentrations of ingredients such as caffeine.
The earnings for the three months to Sept. 30 predated news of the investigation and company officials did not say if they were seeing an impact on sales in the current quarter.
Monster is the top-selling energy drink in the United States but falls behind Austria's Red Bull in dollar sales. The company also sells drinks such as Java Monster and X-Press Monster.
Monster Beverage said it was not aware of a single instance in the world in which its energy drinks have caused deaths.
There is not a shred of information which causally linked Monster to these adverse events and the lawsuit is the first the company has received
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