River Road Asset Management LLC Decreases Position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

River Road Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) by 8.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,343,743 shares of the local business review company's stock after selling 123,399 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.96% of Yelp worth $63,613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 12,790.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,269,731 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $34,714,000 after buying an additional 1,259,881 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yelp in the fourth quarter worth about $19,208,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Yelp by 7.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,257,853 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $281,675,000 after purchasing an additional 596,879 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Yelp by 71.9% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,384,522 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $42,505,000 after buying an additional 579,148 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Yelp by 65.8% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,215,355 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $57,535,000 after buying an additional 482,242 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James assumed coverage on Yelp in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. StockNews.com upgraded Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $41.75.

Insider Activity

In other Yelp news, COO Joseph R. Nachman sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $232,980.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 312,502 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,134,452.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Yelp news, COO Joseph R. Nachman sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $232,980.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 312,502 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,134,452.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 2,750 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $111,732.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 258,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,516,994.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,750 shares of company stock worth $613,213 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 7.20% of the company's stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YELP remained flat at $39.56 during trading on Wednesday. The stock had a trading volume of 470,876 shares, compared to its average volume of 769,457. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.53 and a fifty-two week high of $48.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.30 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.62.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The local business review company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.37. Yelp had a return on equity of 14.06% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $342.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $341.83 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. Yelp's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

Yelp 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.