Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Lowered to Buy Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Yelp's stock rating has been downgraded from a "strong-buy" to a "buy" by Wall Street Zen due to concerns from various brokerages about its performance.
• Shares of Yelp have decreased by 9.5%, with Morgan Stanley and Bank of America both reducing their target prices for the stock.
• The company reported an increase in revenue of 3.7% year-over-year, with earnings per share surpassing analysts' expectations in its last quarterly earnings report.

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on YELP. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $34.00.

Yelp Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE YELP traded up $0.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $31.60. 250,062 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 808,944. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $34.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.97. Yelp has a twelve month low of $29.96 and a twelve month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $370.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $365.71 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 20.17%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Carmen Amara sold 6,886 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.19, for a total value of $262,976.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 92,253 shares in the company, valued at $3,523,142.07. The trade was a 6.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total transaction of $35,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 212,720 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,494,125.60. This represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,151,656. Insiders own 7.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 93.3% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 12,743 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $493,000 after buying an additional 6,150 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Yelp by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,774,878 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $68,702,000 after buying an additional 15,649 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 45,007 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $1,742,000 after purchasing an additional 18,633 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 36,797 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $1,424,000 after buying an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Yelp by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 329,889 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $12,767,000 after purchasing an additional 39,736 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yelp Company 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.