SEB Asset Management AB Makes New $4.29 Million Investment in Yelp Inc. $YELP

SEB Asset Management AB bought a new position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 173,528 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,293,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YELP. Aurora Investment Counsel raised its position in Yelp by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 78,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,933,000 after purchasing an additional 8,431 shares during the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its position in Yelp by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 45,958 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after buying an additional 7,433 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 76.9% in the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 20,460 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $506,000 after buying an additional 8,896 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 39.3% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 522,004 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,914,000 after buying an additional 147,329 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Yelp by 3,716.4% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 44,232 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,094,000 after acquiring an additional 43,073 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YELP. Evercore set a $30.00 price target on Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $27.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $365,547.60. The trade was a 49.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,507 shares of company stock worth $402,481. 8.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp Stock Performance

YELP stock opened at $24.78 on Thursday. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.60 and a twelve month high of $35.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.46. The business’s fifty day moving average is $23.97 and its 200-day moving average is $25.14.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.47 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.19% and a net margin of 9.47%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Yelp Company Profile

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.