Yelp Inc. $YELP Position Increased by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 29.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 194,495 shares of the local business review company’s stock after purchasing an additional 43,742 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Yelp were worth $5,911,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Bfsg LLC lifted its stake in Yelp by 110.3% in the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 839 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 100.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Yelp during the third quarter worth about $55,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp in the 1st quarter worth about $56,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 76.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,097 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price 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. Zacks Research lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at $5,698,975. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $359,442. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 156,264 shares of company stock valued at $4,115,893. Insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Up 0.0%

YELP stock opened at $28.75 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.79. The company has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.47. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22.

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 firm had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $358.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.62 EPS. Yelp’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

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.