Brokerages Set Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Price Target at $32.17

Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) have been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the seven analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $32.1667.

Several research firms have recently commented on YELP. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research lowered Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 10th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total transaction of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 127,627 shares in the company, valued at $3,881,137.07. The trade was a 9.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total transaction of $30,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,878 shares in the company, valued at $2,276,340. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 54,906 shares of company stock valued at $1,688,665 over the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Bfsg LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Yelp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 100.0% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,102.0% during the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,202 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Yelp during the 3rd quarter worth about $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $30.71 on Tuesday. Yelp has a fifty-two week low of $27.29 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72. The stock has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.21.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The business had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yelp will post 2.22 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.