Monster Beverage sales miss estimates on lower customer spending

(Reuters) - Monster Beverage Corp missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter sales on Thursday as higher cost of living weighed on demand for its pricier energy drinks and alcohol brands, sending its shares down 3.4% after the bell.

Consumers have curbed non-essential spending as disposable incomes remain pressured by rising interest rates and higher food prices.

Like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, Monster Beverage also implemented price hikes as it fights pressures from higher raw material costs and labor expenses.

This coupled with easing cost of freight and aluminum cans from pandemic-highs helped the company post second-quarter gross profit as a percentage of net sales of about 52.5%, compared with 47.1%, a year ago.

Still, operating expenses rose to $450.4 million from $406.9 million a year ago.

Net sales rose to $1.85 billion from $1.66 billion a year ago, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.87 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Monster Beverage's profit of 39 cents came in line with expectations.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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