Insider Selling: Yelp (NYSE:YELP) CFO Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Yelp CFO David Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares on March 12 at an average price of $25.00 for a $250,000 transaction, reducing his holdings to 227,959 shares (a 4.20% ownership decline), per an SEC Form 4 filing.
• Yelp beat quarterly EPS estimates ($0.61 vs. $0.47) on revenue of $359.99 million (down 0.5% year‑over‑year), with a net margin of about 9.94% and ROE of 19.96%.
• Analysts have grown cautious — MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of "Reduce" with a $28.50 consensus price target, amid mixed broker notes and several recent downgrades.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 227,959 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,698,975. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP stock traded up $0.69 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $24.34. The company had a trading volume of 1,103,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,498,297. The company's fifty day moving average is $25.27 and its 200 day moving average is $28.97. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 10.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.56.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on YELP shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yelp from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 14.5% in the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,056 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Yelp by 0.7% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 58,298 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $1,998,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,204 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $219,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC now owns 35,838 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $1,118,000 after buying an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 19,871 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company's stock.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.