Cygnus Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 162,050 Shares of Yelp Inc. $YELP

Cygnus Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 3,241.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 167,050 shares of the local business review company’s stock after buying an additional 162,050 shares during the period. Yelp comprises approximately 2.8% of Cygnus Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Cygnus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $4,096,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of YELP. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 1,679.0% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,407,914 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $34,522,000 after acquiring an additional 1,328,772 shares during the last quarter. OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $14,796,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in Yelp by 399.0% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $24,853,000 after purchasing an additional 579,894 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Yelp by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 457,261 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Yelp by 1,144.9% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YELP. Zacks Research raised Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Evercore set a $30.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yelp has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $27.57.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CTO Alexander Coleman Levy sold 3,829 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.40, for a total transaction of $89,598.60. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 54,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,266,501.60. The trade was a 6.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 8,809 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.19, for a total value of $204,280.71. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 180,466 shares in the company, valued at $4,185,006.54. This trade represents a 4.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last three months, insiders sold 13,138 shares of company stock valued at $304,949. 8.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yelp Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $21.58 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.50. The company has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.33, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.43. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $34.49.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The local business review company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $375.52 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $366.89 million. Yelp had a net margin of 8.59% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 1.82 EPS 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.