SG Americas Securities LLC Has $387,000 Stock Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

SG Americas Securities LLC reduced its position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 64.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,641 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 28,835 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 553.8% in the 3rd quarter. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $26,520,000 after acquiring an additional 720,000 shares in the last quarter. 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 purchasing an additional 579,894 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted 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 in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $81,513,000 after purchasing an additional 279,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Man Group plc boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 48.5% in the second quarter. Man Group plc now owns 741,747 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $25,420,000 after buying an additional 242,213 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total value of $199,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 209,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,567,380. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $365,547.60. The trade was a 49.33% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,007 shares of company stock worth $601,981. Insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Price Performance

NYSE YELP opened at $25.61 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.41. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $35.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The firm’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on YELP. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research upgraded Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Evercore set a $30.00 target price on Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $27.88.

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.