Brokerages Set Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) PT at $31.29

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $31.2857.

Several equities analysts recently commented on YELP shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 target price on Yelp in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP opened at $28.13 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.55. The company has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a PE ratio of 12.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp has a 12 month low of $27.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 10.23%.The business had revenue of $376.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total transaction of $450,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 31,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $943,050. This trade represents a 32.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.43, for a total transaction of $36,516.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 192,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,844,963.97. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 46,406 shares of company stock worth $1,398,300 over the last three months. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bfsg LLC boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 110.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 839 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Yelp in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management boosted its holdings in Yelp by 1,102.0% during the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,202 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Yelp in the third quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

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.