Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Given Average Recommendation of "Reduce" by Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts give Yelp a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” (4 sell, 3 hold, 1 buy) with an average 12‑month price target of $28.50.
• Yelp beat EPS with $0.61 versus $0.47 expected and posted $359.99M revenue (vs. $358.7M), but revenue was down 0.5% year‑over‑year and the stock trades around $28.75 with a P/E of 12.78 and a market cap of about $1.71B.
• Insiders have sold 156,264 shares (~$4.12M) in the last 90 days (including sales by the CFO and a director), while institutional ownership remains high at roughly 90%.

Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $28.50.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on YELP shares. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Yelp from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of YELP stock opened at $28.75 on Monday. Yelp has a one year low of $19.60 and a one year high of $41.22. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $24.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a PEG 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The business had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $358.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.62 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yelp will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,100 shares in the company, valued at $359,442. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 227,959 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,698,975. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 156,264 shares of company stock valued at $4,115,893. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in Yelp by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $81,513,000 after acquiring an additional 279,300 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Yelp by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,226,666 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $67,666,000 after acquiring an additional 156,430 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 8.3% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $61,656,000 after buying an additional 151,354 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 7.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $51,458,000 after buying an additional 98,303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,161,711 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $35,304,000 after buying an additional 15,849 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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