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

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has been given an average rating of “Reduce” by the seven analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two 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 twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $32.1667.

YELP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 target price on Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research cut shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of 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, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of Yelp 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 $450,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 31,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $943,050. The trade was a 32.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.62, for a total value of $34,344.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 193,279 shares in the company, valued at $5,531,644.98. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 56,406 shares of company stock worth $1,734,700 over the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Yelp by 19.5% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 173,771 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $6,435,000 after buying an additional 28,395 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 71.0% in 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 during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new position in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $62,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Yelp by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,403,461 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,981,000 after purchasing an additional 71,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,945,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yelp Stock Down 0.9%

Yelp stock opened at $30.12 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.33, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.56. Yelp has a 52-week low of $27.29 and a 52-week high of $41.72.

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