Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Shares Acquired by Suncoast Equity Management

Suncoast Equity Management lifted its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 13.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,235 shares of the local business review company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,595 shares during the period. Suncoast Equity Management’s holdings in Yelp were worth $786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 9.3% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 16.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.9% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $51,542,000 after buying an additional 1,051,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 163.4% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.31, for a total transaction of $343,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 239,112 shares in the company, valued at $8,203,932.72. This trade represents a 4.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 6,886 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.19, for a total transaction of $262,976.34. Following the sale, the insider now owns 92,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,523,142.07. This represents a 6.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,149,176 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on YELP. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP stock opened at $34.39 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $36.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.26. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.02.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued 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 9.95% and a return on equity of 19.42%. The company had revenue of $358.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $353.48 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. Yelp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS 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.