34,300 Shares in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 34,300 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,624,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned about 0.05% of Yelp at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Heron Bay Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management now owns 14,506 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 3.6% in the first quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,679 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 96.6% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 755 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 0.9% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 45,681 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,900,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 4.0% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 11,171 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $407,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. Raymond James assumed coverage on Yelp in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total transaction of $111,732.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 258,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,516,994.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Yelp news, COO Joseph R. Nachman sold 6,000 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,134,452.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $111,732.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 258,848 shares in the company, valued at $10,516,994.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,750 shares of company stock valued at $613,213. 7.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yelp Stock Performance

NYSE:YELP opened at $39.29 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of 29.10 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.57. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.53 and a fifty-two week high of $48.99.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The local business review company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The business had revenue of $342.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $341.83 million. Yelp had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. Research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

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.