Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Holdings Trimmed by Aviva PLC

Aviva PLC lowered its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 14.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,038 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 2,815 shares during the period. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $621,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Yelp by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,553,227 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $89,567,000 after purchasing an additional 23,719 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $71,424,000 after buying an additional 255,775 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,774,878 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $68,702,000 after buying an additional 15,649 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 70.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $23,283,000 after acquiring an additional 249,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 87.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 507,990 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $19,659,000 after acquiring an additional 236,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other Yelp news, CTO Sam Eaton sold 21,989 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.70, for a total transaction of $785,007.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 153,159 shares in the company, valued at $5,467,776.30. This represents a 12.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.51, for a total value of $395,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 191,988 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,585,445.88. This represents a 4.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 57,727 shares of company stock valued at $2,081,667. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.17.

Yelp Trading Down 4.3 %

Yelp stock opened at $34.21 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.56 and a 1-year high of $41.72. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.08.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. Yelp had a return on equity of 18.07% and a net margin of 9.41%. The company had revenue of $361.95 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $350.73 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current 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.