CORONA, CALIF. – What controversy?

Despite legal and regulatory questions regarding the safety and marketing of energy beverages, Monster Beverage saw its earnings rise sharply during the third quarter of fiscal 2014.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company’s net income equaled $121,600,000, equal to 73c per share on the common stock and an increase compared to the same period of the previous year when earnings were $92,187,000, equal to 55c per share.

Sales during the quarter also surged to $738,123,000 compared to $686,623,000 during the previous year’s quarter.

“We are pleased to report another quarter of continuing sales growth, in both our domestic and international markets,” said Rodney C. Sacks, chairman and chief executive officer. “In particular, we continued to achieve good sales growth in Japan, which is becoming one of our largest international markets. We launched Monster Energy Unleaded as well as Monster Energy Ultra Sunrise at the end of the quarter. We believe that both of these products will play an important part in our business plan in 2015.”

Citing data from Nielsen, Mr. Sacks said for the four weeks ended Oct. 25, dollar sales of energy drinks in the convenience and gas channel increased by 4.8% over the comparable period in 2013. Sales of Monster products increased 7.4% over the comparable period the year before. In looking at sales of competitors, Red Bull increased by 6.8%, NOS was up 14.7% and Rockstar was down 13.3%. 5-Hour was down 8.1%, and Amp was down 9.5%.

Expenses related to litigation and regulatory issues totaled $4.9 million during the quarter, less than the $6 million the company paid during the same period of the previous year.