Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 23,722 Shares of Yelp Inc. $YELP

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 33.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 94,461 shares of the local business review company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,722 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $2,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Yelp by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,458 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $135,000 after acquiring an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Yelp by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 40,955 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,245,000 after buying an additional 1,804 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 858.9% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,476 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,352,000 after buying an additional 39,838 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Yelp in the fourth quarter worth about $3,348,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 128.8% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,788 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yelp Stock Performance

NYSE YELP opened at $25.12 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a one year low of $19.60 and a one year high of $41.22. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $23.96 and a 200 day moving average of $28.31. The company has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.47.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YELP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at $5,698,975. This trade represents a 4.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.26, for a total value of $817,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,621,045.08. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 238,764 shares of company stock worth $6,475,093 over the last three months. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

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.