Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Trading 6.5% Higher – Time to Buy?

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) shares traded up 6.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $22.88 and last traded at $23.1970. 86,457 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 93% from the average session volume of 1,319,698 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.79.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YELP. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Evercore set a $30.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.88.

Yelp Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.53.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. Yelp had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 20.19%. The company had revenue of $361.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. Yelp’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 227,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,698,975. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total value of $29,664.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 267,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. The trade was a 0.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 28,864 shares of company stock valued at $723,573. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 73.8% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 562,739 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $13,922,000 after acquiring an additional 238,993 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1.9% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 155,897 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $3,857,000 after acquiring an additional 2,883 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 20.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 77,597 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,920,000 after acquiring an additional 13,342 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 36.1% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 79,142 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,958,000 after acquiring an additional 20,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 14.0% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 358,536 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $8,870,000 after acquiring an additional 44,087 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.