Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has received an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $28.50.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YELP. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted 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. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research lowered Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.69, for a total value of $46,035.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 74,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,282,660.82. The trade was a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 236,264 shares of company stock worth $6,501,015 in the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Yelp by 553.8% during the 3rd quarter. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,520,000 after purchasing an additional 720,000 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in Yelp by 399.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $24,853,000 after purchasing an additional 579,894 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in Yelp by 268.1% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 753,173 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $25,811,000 after purchasing an additional 548,586 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised 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 buying an additional 377,441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised 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 buying an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yelp Stock Down 0.9%

YELP stock opened at $23.83 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $25.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.04. The stock has a market cap of $1.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.59, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.56. Yelp has a fifty-two week low of $19.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22.

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

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.