One Of The Best-Performing Stocks In The Past 30 Years Might Surprise You

When you think of the best performing stocks of the S&P 500, a name that may not immediately come to mind is Monster Beverage. It turns out that the company is one of the best performing stocks in the index over the past 30 years. The Monster stock has yielded a far better return than if you had invested in the S&P 500.

Monster operates in the beverage industry in the energy drink segment. The U.S.-based energy drinks company boasts a market cap of $50.87 billion. Its portfolio of holdings is anchored by the Monster trademark. Important brands in its stable are the Monster Energy and Monster Ultra varieties. Not content with past success and market share leading position, the company has begun to create new trademarks in up and coming segments of the energy drink space. Among these is Reign, in the performance energy market.

Many S&P index company names are better known than Monster. Despite this, an investment in the firm back at its IPO would have rewarded investors with among the highest returns in the S&P 500 index. Over the past 30 years, the MNST stock has rewarded long-term investors with an impressive average annual return of over 29%

The Monster Beverage Corporation is mainly a brand owner. its success has been in part due to its ability to outsource most product manufacturing to third-party co-packers. The company's beverage brands are distributed through the Coca-Cola bottling system.

Founded in 1990, Monster Drinks debuted in a successful IPO only five years later in August 1995. The energy drink leader catapulted to stunning success in 2015 when it inked a deal with soft drinks giant Coca-Cola Co. Under the terms of this deal, Coca-Cola took over the primary global distribution of Monster's drink brands. Coca-Cola gained a 16.7 percent stake ownership of Monster in the transaction. Today Coca-Cola holds roughly 19% of the Monster Beverage Corporation shares.

The Monster Drinks holding company develops, markets, sells, and distributes energy drink concentrates and beverages. This corporation operates in three segments. These include Monster Energy Drinks, Strategic Brands, and Other. Its Other segment includes a subsidiary company American Fruits and Flavors LLC.

The Corona, California-headquartered Monster Beverage has rewarded early investors in its IPO handsomely. U.S. News recently compiled a list of the 10 best performing stocks of the past 30 years. In its entry on Monster Beverage, the publication calls the beverage company "arguably the single best under-the-radar home run investment since its August 1995 IPO."

In almost 30 years, Monster Beverage has seen a total return amounting to 164,539% Since the Monster stock had its IPO, the shares have yielded an average annual return of 29.1%. If you had invested $10,000 in MNST stock back in 1995, your stake would now have a value of over $16.4 million. Monster Beverage stock is another good example of why time in the market almost always beats timing the market.

Achieving these returns would have required steadfastness and staying power in the stock. MNST gains were not always in a straight uptrend line. As an example, the 52 week low to high has ranged from $43.32 to $61.23 over the past year, per the Nasdaq Monster Beverage page. No matter how good a stock is, there are always market corrections.