Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.20, for a total value of $382,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 219,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,390,782.80. This represents a 4.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Yelp Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE:YELP traded up $1.04 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $38.44. 664,933 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 737,422. The firm has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a PE ratio of 20.02, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.99. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.32.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.48 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Yelp by 375.2% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,588 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 122.8% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,902,318 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $70,443,000 after buying an additional 1,048,451 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Yelp in the first quarter worth $13,811,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings 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 worth $71,424,000 after buying an additional 255,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Yelp by 70.7% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $23,283,000 after acquiring an additional 249,231 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.