David Schwarzbach Sells 10,000 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David 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 transaction of $250,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at $5,698,975. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Yelp Stock Up 2.9%

YELP traded up $0.69 on Tuesday, hitting $24.34. 1,103,613 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,498,297. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $41.22. The company has a 50 day moving average of $25.27 and a 200-day moving average of $28.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 10.82, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.56.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The business had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $358.70 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.62 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 71.3% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,158 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,302 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 33.5% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 40,633 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,231,000 after buying an additional 10,204 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 15,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Yelp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $353,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $28.50.

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.