David Schwarzbach Sells 13,500 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Yelp Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:YELP traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $30.59. 1,146,917 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 848,359. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $30.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.51. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 10.23%.The company had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Yelp during the first quarter worth about $1,945,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Yelp by 268.1% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 753,173 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $25,811,000 after acquiring an additional 548,586 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $657,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 71.0% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 70,409 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $2,595,000 after acquiring an additional 29,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 251,209 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,330,000 after acquiring an additional 12,331 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on YELP. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $32.17.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.