Zacks Research Upgrades Yelp (NYSE:YELP) to Strong-Buy

Key Points

• Yelp has been upgraded by Zacks Research from a "hold" to a "strong-buy" rating, reflecting increased confidence among analysts.
• Despite the upgrade from Zacks, other analysts have varied opinions, with Wall Street Zen downgrading Yelp to "buy" and Bank of America setting a lower target price of $30.
• Yelp reported a better-than-expected quarterly earnings with $0.67 EPS compared to the consensus estimate of $0.48, indicating positive financial performance.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on YELP. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Yelp and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $35.00.

Yelp Price Performance

YELP stock opened at $33.73 on Monday. Yelp has a 12 month low of $29.96 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The firm has a market cap of $2.13 billion, a PE ratio of 15.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.27.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $370.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.71 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 20.17%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. Yelp has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yelp will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.24, for a total transaction of $312,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 170,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,316,923.04. This represents a 5.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.37, for a total transaction of $47,055.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 84,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,637,150.42. This represents a 1.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,400 shares of company stock valued at $1,211,130. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Yelp by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 374,536 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $13,869,000 after purchasing an additional 8,239 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Yelp in the first quarter valued at about $1,945,000. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yelp in the first quarter valued at about $2,766,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Yelp by 169.1% in the first quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 16,662 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $617,000 after acquiring an additional 10,471 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 272.5% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 56,595 shares of the local business review company's stock valued at $2,160,000 after acquiring an additional 41,400 shares during the period. 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.

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