Insider Selling: Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Insider Sells $39,576.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.98, for a total transaction of $39,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 201,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,638,874. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Craig Saldanha also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, October 1st, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $37,116.00.
• On Tuesday, September 2nd, Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.17, for a total transaction of $37,404.00.
• On Monday, August 25th, Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.33, for a total transaction of $32,330.00.

Yelp Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of YELP opened at $32.23 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $32.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.99. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.96 and a 52-week high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $370.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.71 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 20.17%. Yelp’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yelp in the first quarter worth about $203,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 272.5% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 56,595 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $2,160,000 after buying an additional 41,400 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 2.1% in the first quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 49,192 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,822,000 after buying an additional 993 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 2.2% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 374,536 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $13,869,000 after buying an additional 8,239 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 424.2% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 17,080 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $627,000 after buying an additional 13,822 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on YELP shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Evercore ISI set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Yelp and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $35.00.

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.