Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock Price Down 8.3% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Yelp shares fell 8.3% on Friday to around $26.13 (intra-day low $25.00) on lighter-than-normal volume, trading 59% below its average session volume.
• Analysts have trimmed ratings and price targets recently—Yelp's consensus rating is listed as "Reduce" with a $28.88 average price target after several cuts from firms including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
• Yelp beat the latest quarter's consensus with $0.30 EPS and $361.5M revenue (revenue up just 0.8% year-over-year), while the company trades at a market cap of ~$1.58B and a P/E of 11.84.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 8.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $25.00 and last traded at $26.13. 533,794 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 59% from the average session volume of 1,295,525 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.50.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on YELP shares. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $28.88.

Yelp Stock Down 6.6%

The business's 50 day moving average is $25.55 and its 200 day moving average is $27.59. The company has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.53.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $361.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.96% and a net margin of 9.94%.The business's revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $359,442. This trade represents a 7.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $199,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 209,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,567,380. This trade represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,864 shares of company stock valued at $723,573. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 157.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $9,352,000 after acquiring an additional 154,612 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of Yelp by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Yelp by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $7,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Yelp by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. 90.11% of the stock is 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.

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.