Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases 10,471 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) by 169.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,662 shares of the local business review company's stock after acquiring an additional 10,471 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Yelp were worth $617,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,924,457 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $74,477,000 after buying an additional 164,149 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,774,878 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $68,702,000 after acquiring an additional 15,649 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 375.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,051,588 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 163.4% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 853,867 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $33,045,000 after purchasing an additional 529,667 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Yelp by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 752,742 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $29,131,000 after purchasing an additional 57,610 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on YELP. Bank of America cut their price objective on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $34.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total value of $35,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 212,720 shares in the company, valued at $7,494,125.60. This represents a 0.47% 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, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total transaction of $346,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 199,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,924,000.72. This trade represents a 4.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,151,656. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp Trading Down 9.5%

NYSE YELP traded down $3.25 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $30.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,718,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 720,130. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $34.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.07. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.85 and a twelve month high of $41.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.97.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.19. Yelp had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The company had revenue of $370.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

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.