Brokerages Set Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Price Target at $27.57

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has earned an average rating of “Reduce” from the seven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $27.5714.

YELP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Evercore set a $30.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In related news, CTO Alexander Coleman Levy sold 3,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.40, for a total value of $89,598.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 54,124 shares in the company, valued at $1,266,501.60. The trade was a 6.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 8,809 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.19, for a total value of $204,280.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 180,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,185,006.54. This represents a 4.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 13,138 shares of company stock worth $304,949 in the last ninety days. 8.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YELP. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Yelp by 100.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Yelp by 70.4% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 71.3% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,158 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Yelp by 181.3% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,297 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of YELP opened at $21.58 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a PE ratio of 10.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $24.93 and a 200-day moving average of $24.49. Yelp has a one year low of $19.60 and a one year high of $34.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The local business review company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.21. Yelp had a net margin of 8.59% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The business had revenue of $375.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $366.89 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yelp will post 1.82 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.