Yelp (NYSE:YELP) CEO Jeremy Stoppelman Sells 30,000 Shares of Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares in the company, valued at $20,719,384.62. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Jeremy Stoppelman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 23rd, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total value of $862,200.00.
• On Tuesday, January 20th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.07, for a total value of $842,100.00.
• On Friday, January 16th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total value of $854,400.00.

Yelp Trading Up 0.8%

YELP stock opened at $27.53 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.25. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $26.96 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.55.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.39 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 553.8% in the 3rd quarter. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,520,000 after purchasing an additional 720,000 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its holdings in Yelp by 399.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $24,853,000 after buying an additional 579,894 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in Yelp by 268.1% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 753,173 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $25,811,000 after acquiring an additional 548,586 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Yelp by 217.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 551,212 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $18,890,000 after acquiring an additional 377,441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Yelp by 1,144.9% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $12,029,000 after acquiring an additional 322,810 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YELP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research cut Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $31.29.

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.