Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Given Consensus Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment 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 topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore set a $30.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th.

Yelp Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE YELP traded up $0.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $25.84. 683,856 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,293,340. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $24.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. Yelp has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $35.39. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.80, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.46.

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

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $199,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 209,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,567,380. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total value of $355,885.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 15,928 shares in the company, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,007 shares of company stock valued at $601,981. Corporate insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Baron Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yelp in the 2nd quarter worth $244,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 16.7% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 467,195 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $11,558,000 after purchasing an additional 66,833 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 192.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 367,028 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $9,080,000 after purchasing an additional 241,656 shares during the period. Essential Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 225.9% during the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 2,796 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Yelp by 73.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 562,739 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $13,922,000 after buying an additional 238,993 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.