LPL Financial LLC Has $493,000 Stock Holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 93.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,743 shares of the local business review company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,150 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $493,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the 4th quarter worth $1,494,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Yelp by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 124,016 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $4,799,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Yelp by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 281,917 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $10,910,000 after buying an additional 46,847 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Yelp by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 145,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $5,626,000 after buying an additional 2,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 18,631 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $721,000 after buying an additional 4,421 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other Yelp news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.45, for a total transaction of $34,450.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 222,512 shares in the company, valued at $7,665,538.40. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $49,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 107,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,554,984.12. This represents a 1.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,727 shares of company stock valued at $2,025,717 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.33.

Yelp Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $35.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.31, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.08. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.29 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.85.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $361.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $350.73 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.