McIlrath & Eck LLC Invests $63,000 in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,621 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Yelp by 375.2% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,588 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Yelp by 163.4% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 853,867 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $33,045,000 after purchasing an additional 529,667 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $71,424,000 after purchasing an additional 255,775 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 70.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $23,283,000 after purchasing an additional 249,231 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yelp during the fourth quarter worth $7,455,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.34, for a total value of $36,340.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 223,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,122,426.08. This trade represents a 0.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $49,740.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 107,207 shares in the company, valued at $3,554,984.12. The trade was a 1.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 57,727 shares of company stock worth $2,025,717 over the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Yelp Stock Performance

NYSE:YELP opened at $37.98 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.99. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.29 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.26.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The business had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.48 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current 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.