Carmen Amara Sells 500 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Carmen Amara sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.35, for a total value of $11,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 132,224 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,206.40. The trade was a 0.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Yelp Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE:YELP opened at $22.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.25, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.74. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.86. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.60 and a 52-week high of $39.58.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $361.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 100.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 446 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 479 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 71.3% in 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 buying an additional 482 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 181.3% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,297 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Yelp in the third quarter worth about $55,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Evercore set a $30.00 target price on Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $27.88.

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.