Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to "Buy"

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 cut shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yelp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $34.00.

Yelp Price Performance

Yelp stock traded down $0.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $30.42. 1,597,698 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 811,736. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.05. Yelp has a 12 month low of $29.96 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.77, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.97.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.19. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 10.28%. The firm had revenue of $370.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.71 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. The company's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yelp will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In related news, insider Carmen Amara sold 6,886 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.19, for a total transaction of $262,976.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 92,253 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,523,142.07. This trade represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total value of $346,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 199,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,924,000.72. This represents a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,151,656 over the last 90 days. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LSV Asset Management raised its position in Yelp by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,093,765 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $71,753,000 after purchasing an additional 191,447 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH raised its position in Yelp by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 182,329 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $6,248,000 after purchasing an additional 7,385 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in Yelp by 36.1% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,474 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 10,736 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its position in Yelp by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 16,391 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $562,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its position in Yelp by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 14,436 shares of the local business review company's stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.