Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Invests $3.35 Million in Yelp Inc. $YELP

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 110,160 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,348,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Bfsg LLC increased its position in Yelp by 110.3% in the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 839 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,102.0% during the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,202 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Yelp during the third quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp in the 1st quarter worth about $56,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,698,975. This trade represents a 4.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.26, for a total value of $817,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,621,045.08. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 238,764 shares of company stock worth $6,481,945 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Yelp Stock Up 0.0%

YELP stock opened at $24.36 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.51. The company has a market capitalization of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.83, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.56. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22.

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 company had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. Yelp’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Yelp 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.