Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,402,348 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 209,947 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 13.32% of Yelp worth $262,153,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $74,972,000 after buying an additional 309,173 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Yelp by 4.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 95,933 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Yelp by 7.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,458,000 after acquiring an additional 98,303 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Yelp by 35.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 241,963 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $25,811,000 after purchasing an additional 548,586 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YELP has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $28.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total transaction of $450,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 31,435 shares in the company, valued at $943,050. This trade represents a 32.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.54, for a total value of $826,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 964,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,571,335.58. The trade was a 3.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 252,459 shares of company stock worth $6,994,849. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yelp Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $22.23 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.56. The company has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a PE ratio of 9.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.60 and a twelve month high of $41.22.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.62 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current 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.