Brokerages Set Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) PT at $37.17

Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.17.

Separately, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $49,740.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 107,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,554,984.12. This represents a 1.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.51, for a total value of $395,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 191,988 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,585,445.88. This represents a 4.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,727 shares of company stock worth $2,081,667 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Yelp in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,368,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yelp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $240,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.2% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 97,963 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $3,791,000 after acquiring an additional 35,642 shares in the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in Yelp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $236,000. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new stake in Yelp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP stock opened at $38.41 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.50 billion, a PE ratio of 20.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.76. Yelp has a 1 year low of $32.56 and a 1 year high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The company had revenue of $361.95 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $350.73 million. Equities research analysts expect that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.