Vestcor Inc Buys 122,546 Shares of Yelp Inc. $YELP

Vestcor Inc raised its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 548.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 144,902 shares of the local business review company’s stock after buying an additional 122,546 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Yelp were worth $4,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of YELP. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $24,853,000 after buying an additional 579,894 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 548,586 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Yelp by 217.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 377,441 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in Yelp by 1,144.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 322,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in Yelp by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $74,972,000 after acquiring an additional 309,173 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $24.22 on Tuesday. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $41.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.76, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.24.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on YELP. UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Zacks Research cut shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Evercore dropped their price objective on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.69, for a total transaction of $46,035.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 74,378 shares in the company, valued at $2,282,660.82. This trade represents a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.26, for a total value of $817,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,621,045.08. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 236,264 shares of company stock worth $6,501,015. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

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.