Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Invests $52,000 in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,409 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Wyoming raised its stake in Yelp by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 9,030 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $349,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,767 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 60,697 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $2,349,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Yelp by 47.3% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,936 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Yelp by 57.7% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,725 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 631 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, Director Dan Jedda sold 2,794 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.68, for a total value of $99,689.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $662,363.52. The trade was a 13.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total value of $35,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 212,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,494,125.60. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,151,656 in the last quarter. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Price Performance

YELP opened at $34.73 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.28 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $35.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.48. The firm has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a PE ratio of 16.69, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.98.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.42% and a net margin of 9.95%. The business had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.48 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.00.

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.