Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $27.8750.

YELP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Friday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Zacks Research raised Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total value of $29,664.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 267,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. This trade represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $187,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 216,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,420,000. The trade was a 3.34% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,707 shares of company stock worth $819,145. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Yelp by 20.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 457,261 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 11.6% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $61,656,000 after purchasing an additional 151,354 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,458,000 after purchasing an additional 98,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Yelp by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,161,711 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,304,000 after buying an additional 15,849 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yelp Stock Down 2.6%

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $22.51 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.28, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $25.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.11. Yelp has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $35.99.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. Yelp had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 20.19%. The business had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Yelp will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.