David Schwarzbach Sells 8,809 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 8,809 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.19, for a total transaction of $204,280.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 180,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,185,006.54. This represents a 4.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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.

Yelp Stock Performance

NYSE YELP traded up $0.40 on Monday, hitting $23.86. The stock had a trading volume of 838,689 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,283,294. The company’s 50-day moving average is $24.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.54. Yelp Inc. has a one year low of $19.60 and a one year high of $34.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The local business review company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $375.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $366.89 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 8.59%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore set a $30.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $27.57.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,328,772 shares during the period. OP Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Yelp in the first quarter worth about $14,796,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in shares of 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 worth $24,853,000 after acquiring an additional 579,894 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Yelp by 20.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $66,402,000 after acquiring an additional 457,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,144.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 322,810 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.