The Goldman Sachs Group Lowers Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Price Target to $25.00

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) had its price objective dropped by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $33.00 to $25.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the local business review company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 21.39% from the company’s current price.

YELP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore reduced their price objective on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

Yelp Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Yelp stock traded down $0.39 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.60. 1,510,917 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,319,500. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp has a fifty-two week low of $19.61 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.27.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The company had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $358.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.62 earnings per share. Yelp’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 127,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,881,137.07. This represents a 9.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total transaction of $821,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,719,384.62. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Yelp by 157.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,352,000 after acquiring an additional 154,612 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $7,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

About Yelp

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.