Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Price Target Cut to $25.00 by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $33.00 to $25.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the local business review company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 21.39% from the company’s current price.

YELP has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP traded down $0.39 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.60. The company had a trading volume of 1,510,917 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,319,500. Yelp has a 52 week low of $19.61 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The business’s 50-day moving average is $28.38 and its 200 day moving average is $30.27. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.13, a PEG ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55.

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

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total transaction of $821,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,719,384.62. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 127,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,881,137.07. This represents a 9.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184. 7.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Yelp by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $81,513,000 after purchasing an additional 279,300 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,359,112 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $80,827,000 after buying an additional 95,933 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,226,666 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $67,666,000 after acquiring an additional 156,430 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $61,656,000 after acquiring an additional 151,354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Yelp by 7.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,458,000 after acquiring an additional 98,303 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.