Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.17.

YELP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Yelp from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Yelp to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.72, for a total transaction of $397,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 201,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,022,963.36. This represents a 4.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.40, for a total transaction of $38,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 182,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,010,227.20. This represents a 0.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 33,267 shares of company stock worth $1,299,802. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Yelp by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,743,899 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $96,256,000 after purchasing an additional 48,363 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Yelp by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,553,227 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $89,567,000 after buying an additional 23,719 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Yelp by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,924,457 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $74,477,000 after buying an additional 164,149 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $71,424,000 after purchasing an additional 255,775 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,774,878 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $68,702,000 after purchasing an additional 15,649 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Down 2.4 %

Yelp stock opened at $35.70 on Friday. Yelp has a 52-week low of $32.56 and a 52-week high of $41.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.59, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.61.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $361.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $350.73 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Yelp

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.