Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Increases Holdings in Yelp Inc. $YELP

Key Points

• Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its stake by 18.7% in Yelp, buying 39,585 shares to hold 251,569 shares worth $7.63M (about 0.41% of the company) at quarter-end.
• Institutional ownership is very high (90.11%) with several funds (e.g., Royal Bank of Canada) adding positions, while insiders have sold 126,264 shares worth $3.29M in the past three months, leaving insiders with roughly 8% ownership.
• Yelp beat last quarter's EPS estimates ($0.61 vs. $0.47) on $359.99M revenue (down 0.5% y/y), but analysts are largely negative—consensus rating "Reduce" with an average price target of $28.50—while the stock trades near $29.15 (market cap ~$1.73B, P/E ~13).

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) by 18.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 251,569 shares of the local business review company's stock after purchasing an additional 39,585 shares during the quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned about 0.41% of Yelp worth $7,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Yelp by 157.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $9,352,000 after purchasing an additional 154,612 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Yelp by 0.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 2.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $7,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 21.8% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Yelp in the first quarter valued at $56,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other Yelp news, 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 transaction of $29,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 267,835 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,620,881.20. The trade was a 0.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $359,442. This trade represents a 7.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 126,264 shares of company stock worth $3,294,193. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yelp Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $29.15 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.78. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $41.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.47.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.96% and a net margin of 9.94%.The firm had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.62 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YELP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on Yelp in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered Yelp from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. 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. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Yelp from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $28.50.

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.

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