Insider Selling: Yelp (NYSE:YELP) CFO Sells 7,500 Shares of Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $187,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 216,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,420,000. This represents a 3.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Yelp Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of YELP traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $24.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,286,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,481,081. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.60 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of 10.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $24.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.66.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Yelp by 157.8% in 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 buying an additional 154,612 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew 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 worth $2,828,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised 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 worth $7,723,000 after acquiring an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised 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 worth $1,458,000 after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $56,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on YELP shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yelp currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target 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.