Bristlecone Advisors LLC Buys 9,393 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Key Points

• Bristlecone Advisors LLC increased its stake in Yelp Inc. by 30.4%, now owning 40,325 shares valued at about $1.49 million.
• In the first quarter, other significant investors like Farther Finance Advisors LLC and Fifth Third Bancorp also boosted their stakes significantly by 307.4% and 57.7%, respectively.
• Yelp's most recent earnings report reflected an EPS of $0.67, exceeding estimates, with a revenue increase of 3.7% year-over-year.

Bristlecone Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) by 30.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,325 shares of the local business review company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,393 shares during the quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC owned about 0.06% of Yelp worth $1,493,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Wyoming increased its holdings in Yelp by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 9,030 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $349,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,767 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $262,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 60,697 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $2,349,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 47.3% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,936 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 622 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.7% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,725 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 631 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YELP has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America lowered their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered Yelp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $34.00.

Yelp Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of Yelp stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $31.65. The stock had a trading volume of 380,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 809,983. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $34.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.96. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $29.96 and a 52 week high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $370.39 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $365.71 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 10.28%. Yelp's quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total transaction of $346,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 199,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,924,000.72. The trade was a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 6,886 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was 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 trade represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,151,656 in the last quarter. 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.