Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Reaches New 52-Week Low – Time to Sell?

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $23.90 and last traded at $23.92, with a volume of 147128 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $24.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on YELP. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley decreased 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. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yelp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.29.

Yelp Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $29.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.78. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.72, a PEG ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.55.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.39 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 10.23%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yelp news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total transaction of $821,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares in the company, valued at $20,719,384.62. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 127,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,881,137.07. The trade was a 9.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 157.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $9,352,000 after acquiring an additional 154,612 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in 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 worth $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Yelp by 2.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,210 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Yelp by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,458,000 after buying an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Yelp during the first quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

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.