Jeremy Stoppelman Sells 30,000 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.54, for a total value of $826,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,832,853.32. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Jeremy Stoppelman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 30th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.26, for a total transaction of $817,800.00.
• On Tuesday, January 27th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total value of $821,700.00.
• On Friday, January 23rd, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total value of $862,200.00.
• On Tuesday, January 20th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.07, for a total transaction of $842,100.00.
• On Friday, January 16th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total value of $854,400.00.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $27.39. The stock had a trading volume of 902,689 shares, compared to its average volume of 927,577. The firm has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $29.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.08. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.96 and a twelve month high of $41.22.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Yelp by 14.8% during the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $74,972,000 after purchasing an additional 309,173 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yelp by 4.2% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,359,112 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $80,827,000 after acquiring an additional 95,933 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 4.5% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,070,236 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $64,592,000 after purchasing an additional 88,860 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 valued at $61,656,000 after buying an additional 151,354 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 7.0% in the 2nd 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 during the period. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on YELP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 price target on Yelp in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price objective on Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Friday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.29.

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.