Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Reduces Stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lowered its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 64.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 781 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 1,405 shares during the quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd.’s holdings in Yelp were worth $30,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in YELP. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Yelp by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,924,457 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $74,477,000 after buying an additional 164,149 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Yelp by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $71,424,000 after buying an additional 255,775 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Yelp by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,774,878 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $68,702,000 after buying an additional 15,649 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Yelp by 375.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,542,000 after buying an additional 1,051,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in Yelp by 163.4% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 853,867 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $33,045,000 after buying an additional 529,667 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total value of $35,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 211,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,563,198.50. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Sam Eaton sold 21,989 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.70, for a total value of $785,007.30. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 153,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,467,776.30. This represents a 12.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 57,727 shares of company stock valued at $2,025,717 in the last three months. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yelp Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $38.53 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $35.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.24. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.29 and a twelve month high of $41.72. The company has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.99.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.48 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 18.07% and a net margin of 9.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Yelp

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.