OP Asset Management Ltd Makes New $14.80 Million Investment in Yelp Inc. $YELP

OP Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 598,074 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,796,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of YELP. LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in Yelp by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $81,513,000 after purchasing an additional 279,300 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Yelp by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,226,666 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $67,666,000 after buying an additional 156,430 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Yelp by 8.3% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $61,656,000 after buying an additional 151,354 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Yelp by 7.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,458,000 after buying an additional 98,303 shares during the period. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 1.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on YELP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore set a $30.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 price target on Yelp in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $27.88.

Yelp Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NYSE:YELP opened at $23.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $24.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $35.99.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results 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. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The company had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. Yelp’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 15,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,547.60. This represents a 49.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $199,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 209,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,567,380. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,207 shares of company stock valued at $631,645. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.