Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Insider Sells $38,400.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.40, for a total value of $38,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 182,558 shares in the company, valued at $7,010,227.20. This represents a 0.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

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

• On Monday, December 23rd, Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.99, for a total value of $37,990.00.
• On Friday, November 29th, Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.05, for a total transaction of $38,050.00.

Yelp Price Performance

YELP opened at $38.76 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.34. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.56 and a 1-year high of $45.91.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The local business review company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.16. Yelp had a return on equity of 16.02% and a net margin of 8.48%. The company had revenue of $360.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $360.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI upgraded Yelp to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Yelp from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,743,899 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $96,256,000 after purchasing an additional 48,363 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Yelp by 0.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,553,227 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $89,567,000 after acquiring an additional 23,719 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 3.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,229 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $61,724,000 after acquiring an additional 64,381 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Yelp by 2.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,693,819 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $62,587,000 after purchasing an additional 33,046 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,174,607 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $41,205,000 after purchasing an additional 56,618 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.