Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. Increases Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 847,994 shares of the local business review company’s stock after buying an additional 94,821 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. owned approximately 1.34% of Yelp worth $26,457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in Yelp by 399.0% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $24,853,000 after acquiring an additional 579,894 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 217.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 551,212 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $18,890,000 after purchasing an additional 377,441 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,144.9% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 14.8% during the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $74,972,000 after purchasing an additional 309,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 1,256.0% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 291,519 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,990,000 after purchasing an additional 270,020 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore dropped their price objective on shares of Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $28.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 127,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,881,137.07. This represents a 9.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $450,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 31,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $943,050. The trade was a 32.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of YELP stock opened at $21.28 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a PE ratio of 9.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.61 and a 1 year high of $41.22.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.96% and a net margin of 9.94%.Yelp’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

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.