Yelp (NYSE:YELP) CFO Sells $250,000.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,698,975. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Yelp Stock Up 0.5%

YELP stock opened at $24.43 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.60 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.56.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Yelp by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $81,513,000 after buying an additional 279,300 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Yelp by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,226,666 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $67,666,000 after buying an additional 156,430 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Yelp by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $61,656,000 after buying an additional 151,354 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,458,000 after acquiring an additional 98,303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,161,711 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,304,000 after acquiring an additional 15,849 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on YELP shares. UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

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.