CORONA, Calif. (AP) _ Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST) on Thursday reported third-quarter net income of $347.7 million.

The Corona, California-based company said it had net income of 65 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 63 cents per share.

The energy drink maker posted revenue of $1.25 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.24 billion.

Monster Beverage shares have increased 32% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen roughly 9%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $83.68, a rise of 48% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MNST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MNST

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