Yelp (NYSE:YELP) CFO Sells $199,500.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 7,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $199,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 209,300 shares in the company, valued at $5,567,380. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Yelp Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:YELP traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $27.92. 698,742 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,366,074. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.98. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.60 and a fifty-two week high of $41.22. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.47.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. Yelp’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on YELP. Zacks Research lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Bfsg LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 110.3% in the third 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 during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 100.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in Yelp by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Yelp by 71.3% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,158 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in 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 valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.