David Schwarzbach Sells 8,809 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CFO David Schwarzbach sold 8,809 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.19, for a total transaction of $204,280.71. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 180,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,185,006.54. The trade was a 4.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Yelp Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $23.78 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a PE ratio of 11.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $25.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.53. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $34.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The local business review company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $375.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $366.89 million. Yelp had a net margin of 8.59% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Yelp by 20.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $66,402,000 after acquiring an additional 457,261 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Yelp by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,682,238 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $81,513,000 after purchasing an additional 279,300 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 8.3% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,976,150 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $61,656,000 after purchasing an additional 151,354 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 7.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,501,764 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,458,000 after purchasing an additional 98,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Yelp by 1,679.0% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,407,914 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $34,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,328,772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research upgraded Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore set a $30.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $27.57.

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.