Yelp Inc. $YELP Stake Reduced by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. cut its stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 19.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 223,114 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 53,601 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Yelp were worth $5,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Yelp during the first quarter worth about $14,796,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 399.0% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $24,853,000 after acquiring an additional 579,894 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Yelp by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 457,261 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Yelp by 1,144.9% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its position in Yelp by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $81,513,000 after purchasing an additional 279,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In related news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $365,547.60. The trade was a 49.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 17,507 shares of company stock worth $402,481 over the last quarter. 8.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yelp Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $26.68 on Wednesday. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $34.64. The stock has a market cap of $1.47 billion, a PE ratio of 12.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.46. The business’s fifty day moving average is $24.74 and its 200-day moving average is $24.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $361.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on YELP. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Evercore set a $30.00 target price on Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.88.

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.