Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $24.81, but opened at $25.94. Yelp shares last traded at $24.1580, with a volume of 164,842 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on YELP shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Evercore set a $30.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.47, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $24.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.10.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The firm had revenue of $361.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the sale, the director owned 15,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,547.60. This represents a 49.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 17,507 shares of company stock worth $402,481 in the last 90 days. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in YELP. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in Yelp by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its position in Yelp by 71.3% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,158 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in Yelp by 70.4% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 479 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 181.3% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,297 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Yelp in the first quarter worth $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Company Profile

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.