Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 52,693 Shares of Yelp Inc. $YELP

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lessened its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 71.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,603 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 52,693 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Yelp were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Yelp by 157.8% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $9,352,000 after buying an additional 154,612 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Yelp by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,828,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Yelp by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $7,723,000 after buying an additional 5,210 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Yelp by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,458,000 after buying an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YELP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Yelp Stock Performance

Yelp stock opened at $27.92 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.60 and a 52-week high of $41.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $23.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.95. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 0.47.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,100 shares in the company, valued at $359,442. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $29,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 267,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,620,881.20. This represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,264 shares of company stock worth $5,820,193. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Yelp

Yelp is a digital platform that connects consumers with local businesses through user-generated reviews, ratings and multimedia content. The company’s flagship offerings include the Yelp website and mobile applications for iOS and Android, where users can search for and discover restaurants, shops, service providers and other points of interest. In addition to crowd-sourced reviews and photographs, Yelp provides business profile pages featuring hours, contact information, menus and direct messaging capabilities.

Yelp generates revenue primarily through advertising services sold to small and medium-sized enterprises.