Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) COO Sells $232,980.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) COO Joseph R. Nachman sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $232,980.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 312,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,134,452.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Yelp Price Performance

YELP stock opened at $39.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.19 and a beta of 1.49. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $26.53 and a 1-year high of $48.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.85.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The local business review company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The firm had revenue of $342.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $341.83 million. Yelp had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 14.06%. Yelp’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on YELP shares. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on shares of Yelp from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. Finally, Raymond James assumed coverage on Yelp in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 6.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,253,025 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $313,770,000 after buying an additional 577,514 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Yelp by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,642,699 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $89,614,000 after acquiring an additional 123,355 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Yelp by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,496,166 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $103,789,000 after acquiring an additional 384,566 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Yelp by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,066,180 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $63,430,000 after acquiring an additional 107,348 shares during the period. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Yelp by 2.1% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,898,630 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $58,288,000 after purchasing an additional 39,433 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yelp Company Profile

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.