Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Reduce" by the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.00.
A number of research analysts have commented on YELP shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th.
Read Our Latest Report on Yelp
Insider Activity at Yelp
In related news, Director Dan Jedda sold 2,794 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.68, for a total transaction of $99,689.92. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,363.52. This represents a 13.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 199,654 shares in the company, valued at $6,924,000.72. The trade was a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,151,656. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Trading of Yelp
A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 375.2% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $51,542,000 after buying an additional 1,051,588 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 122.8% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,902,318 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $70,443,000 after buying an additional 1,048,451 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yelp during the first quarter worth approximately $13,811,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $71,424,000 after buying an additional 255,775 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 70.7% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $23,283,000 after buying an additional 249,231 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Yelp Trading Down 1.0%
Shares of YELP stock opened at $34.73 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $35.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.48. The stock has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.69, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.98. Yelp has a twelve month low of $32.28 and a twelve month high of $41.72.
Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. Yelp had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 19.42%. The firm had revenue of $358.53 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $353.48 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.
Yelp Company Profile
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Get Free ReportYelp 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.
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