Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Short Interest Update

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 8,660,502 shares, an increase of 14.9% from the March 31st total of 7,536,779 shares. Currently, 15.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,010,391 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total transaction of $30,773.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $359,442. This trade represents a 7.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total value of $199,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 209,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,567,380. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 96,264 shares of company stock worth $2,476,393. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Yelp by 157.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,352,000 after purchasing an additional 154,612 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Yelp by 2.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Yelp by 21.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped 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. UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $28.50.

Yelp Stock Performance

YELP opened at $28.95 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.76. The company has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a PE ratio of 12.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 0.53. Yelp has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $41.22.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.62 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Yelp will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

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.