David Schwarzbach Sells 10,000 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at $5,698,975. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Yelp Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $24.39 on Thursday. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $41.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.88.

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

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yelp during the third quarter worth $2,207,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in Yelp by 35.4% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 925,898 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $28,888,000 after acquiring an additional 241,963 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in Yelp in the third quarter worth about $1,185,000. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. increased its position in Yelp by 150.0% in the third quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 105,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $3,276,000 after purchasing an additional 63,000 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Yelp by 17.7% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 295,562 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $10,148,000 after purchasing an additional 44,353 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on YELP. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

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.