Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $24.28, but opened at $23.01. Yelp shares last traded at $23.1750, with a volume of 84,759 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YELP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Evercore set a $30.00 price objective on Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 price objective on Yelp in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.88.

Yelp Stock Down 7.0%

The company has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a 50 day moving average of $25.15 and a 200-day moving average of $26.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $199,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 209,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,567,380. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total value of $29,664.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 267,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. This trade represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 33,707 shares of company stock valued at $819,145 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yelp during the third quarter worth about $2,207,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Yelp during the fourth quarter worth about $3,348,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 858.9% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,476 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,352,000 after buying an additional 39,838 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 14.8% in the third 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 period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 56.7% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 653,818 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $19,870,000 after buying an additional 236,568 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

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.