Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Lowered to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Evercore lowered 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Yelp Price Performance

Yelp stock opened at $21.66 on Tuesday. Yelp has a 12-month low of $19.61 and a 12-month high of $41.22. The company has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $28.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.12.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.96% and a net margin of 9.94%.The company had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.62 EPS. Yelp’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Yelp will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Yelp news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.20, for a total value of $150,040.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 964,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,348,813.40. This trade represents a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total value of $32,880.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 190,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,230,084.60. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bfsg LLC raised its position in shares of Yelp by 110.3% during the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 839 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Yelp during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Yelp by 100.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 479 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 181.3% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,297 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.