Yelp Inc. $YELP Shares Sold by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. trimmed its position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 19.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 223,114 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 53,601 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. owned approximately 0.37% of Yelp worth $5,520,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. OP Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the first quarter valued at about $14,796,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 399.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $24,853,000 after acquiring an additional 579,894 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Yelp by 20.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,683,927 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 457,261 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Yelp by 1,144.9% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in Yelp by 11.6% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Yelp stock opened at $26.68 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.60 and a 12 month high of $34.64. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $24.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.90. The company has a market cap of $1.47 billion, a PE ratio of 12.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.46.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research report on Monday, May 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Evercore set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $27.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In related news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total transaction of $355,885.65. Following the sale, the director owned 15,928 shares in the company, valued at $365,547.60. This represents a 49.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,507 shares of company stock worth $402,481. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.