SGL Investment Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

SGL Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 80,350 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,656,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yelp by 4.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,359,112 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $80,827,000 after purchasing an additional 95,933 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,093,765 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $71,753,000 after buying an additional 191,447 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,458,000 after buying an additional 98,303 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 35.4% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 925,898 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,888,000 after buying an additional 241,963 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Yelp by 268.1% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 753,173 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $25,811,000 after acquiring an additional 548,586 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, January 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 31,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $943,050. This trade represents a 32.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total value of $821,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,719,384.62. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 223,706 shares of company stock valued at $6,333,564. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp Stock Down 8.7%

Yelp stock opened at $25.01 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.07, a PEG ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.92 and a 52-week high of $41.22.

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

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.