Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Insider Craig Saldanha Sells 1,200 Shares

Key Points

• Craig Saldanha, a Yelp insider, sold 1,200 shares on April 1 at an average price of $24.72 for $29,664, reducing his stake by 0.45% to 267,835 shares (≈$6.62M); he also sold 1,200 shares in March and February, showing a recent pattern of disposals.
• Yelp beat EPS estimates with $0.61 for the quarter (vs. $0.47 est.) and reported $359.99M in revenue (down 0.5% YoY); the stock trades near $25.12, has a $1.5B market cap, and carries a consensus analyst rating of "Reduce" with an average target of $28.50.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $29,664.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 267,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. The trade was a 0.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Craig Saldanha also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 2nd, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.78, for a total value of $26,136.00.
• On Monday, February 2nd, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total value of $32,880.00.

Yelp Price Performance

NYSE YELP traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $25.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,523,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,286,962. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.47. The company's 50-day moving average is $24.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.37. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.60 and a 1-year high of $41.22.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YELP. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Yelp by 553.8% during the 3rd quarter. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850,000 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $26,520,000 after acquiring an additional 720,000 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 399.0% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $24,853,000 after purchasing an additional 579,894 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,144.9% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Yelp by 14.8% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $74,972,000 after purchasing an additional 309,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 49.3% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 823,050 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $25,679,000 after purchasing an additional 271,838 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YELP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a 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 for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $28.50.

Yelp Company Profile

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.