Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Trading Down 6.5% – Time to Sell?

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)’s share price was down 6.5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $24.22 and last traded at $23.91. 73,050 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 1,290,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.56.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on YELP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Evercore set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.57.

Yelp Stock Down 5.3%

The company’s 50-day moving average is $24.87 and its 200 day moving average is $24.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 11.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The local business review company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.21. Yelp had a net margin of 8.59% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The company had revenue of $375.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $366.89 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.67 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 1.84 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.95, for a total value of $355,885.65. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $365,547.60. This represents a 49.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,507 shares of company stock valued at $402,481. 8.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Yelp by 0.7% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 58,298 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,998,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,204 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $219,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Yelp by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Yelp by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,302 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $252,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 70.4% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,159 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

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.