19,877 Shares in Yelp Inc. $YELP Bought by Meeder Asset Management Inc.

Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 19,877 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $620,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Yelp in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 1,102.0% in the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,202 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Yelp during the first quarter worth about $56,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Yelp by 14.5% during the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,056 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $105,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Yelp by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,638 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In related news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total transaction of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 127,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,881,137.07. The trade was a 9.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.04, for a total value of $49,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 82,566 shares in the company, valued at $2,727,980.64. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 56,406 shares of company stock worth $1,734,100. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $30.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50-day moving average of $29.93 and a 200 day moving average of $31.76. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.39 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on YELP. Zacks Research cut Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 price objective on Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $32.17.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp is a digital platform that connects consumers with local businesses through user-generated reviews, ratings and multimedia content. The company’s flagship offerings include the Yelp website and mobile applications for iOS and Android, where users can search for and discover restaurants, shops, service providers and other points of interest. In addition to crowd-sourced reviews and photographs, Yelp provides business profile pages featuring hours, contact information, menus and direct messaging capabilities.

Yelp generates revenue primarily through advertising services sold to small and medium-sized enterprises.