Ethic Inc. Takes $525,000 Position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Ethic Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 13,573 shares of the local business review company's stock, valued at approximately $525,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 375.2% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $51,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,588 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 163.4% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 853,867 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $33,045,000 after buying an additional 529,667 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $71,424,000 after buying an additional 255,775 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 70.7% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $23,283,000 after buying an additional 249,231 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 87.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 507,990 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $19,659,000 after acquiring an additional 236,400 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Yelp news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $35,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 211,558 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,563,198.50. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Sam Eaton sold 21,989 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.70, for a total value of $785,007.30. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 153,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,467,776.30. This trade represents a 12.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 57,727 shares of company stock valued at $2,025,717 in the last quarter. Insiders own 8.00% of the company's stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of YELP traded down $0.61 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $38.53. 741,206 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 734,675. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $35.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.21. The company has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.99. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.29 and a 12-month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The business had revenue of $358.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.48 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YELP has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $34.00.

Yelp Profile

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.