Teacher Retirement System of Texas Sells 63,341 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas cut its holdings in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) by 32.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 133,977 shares of the local business review company's stock after selling 63,341 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned approximately 0.21% of Yelp worth $4,961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Yelp by 307.4% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new position in Yelp during the 4th quarter worth $63,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.7% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,725 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 445.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,061 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 1,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 78.3% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,585 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yelp Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE YELP traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.77. 13,282 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 765,197. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.29 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.71, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.86.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $358.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.48 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.42% and a net margin of 9.95%. Yelp's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $34.00.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other news, CTO Sam Eaton sold 12,904 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total transaction of $492,674.72. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 145,064 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,538,543.52. This represents a 8.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 6,886 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.19, for a total value of $262,976.34. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 92,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,523,142.07. This represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,147,176. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yelp Company 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.