Craig Saldanha Sells 1,200 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total transaction of $32,880.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 190,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,230,084.60. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Craig Saldanha also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 2nd, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.43, for a total value of $36,516.00.
• On Monday, December 1st, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.62, for a total transaction of $34,344.00.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YELP opened at $24.04 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.92 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a PE ratio of 10.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average is $29.29 and its 200-day moving average is $30.91.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The firm had revenue of $376.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in Yelp by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $74,972,000 after buying an additional 309,173 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Yelp by 4.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,359,112 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $80,827,000 after acquiring an additional 95,933 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Yelp by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,070,236 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $64,592,000 after purchasing an additional 88,860 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Yelp by 8.3% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $61,656,000 after acquiring an additional 151,354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in 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 during the period. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on YELP shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research upgraded Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.29.

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.