North Star Investment Management Corp. Buys 20,000 Shares of Yelp Inc. $YELP

North Star Investment Management Corp. raised its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 500.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,000 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Yelp were worth $749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 268.1% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 753,173 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $25,811,000 after purchasing an additional 548,586 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Yelp by 17.7% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 295,562 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $10,148,000 after buying an additional 44,353 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Yelp by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,359,112 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $80,827,000 after buying an additional 95,933 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in Yelp by 23.1% during the second quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 683,935 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $23,438,000 after buying an additional 128,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in Yelp by 4.8% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 233,570 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $8,004,000 after buying an additional 10,645 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In related news, Director Christine Barone sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $450,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 31,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $943,050. This trade represents a 32.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.43, for a total transaction of $36,516.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 192,079 shares in the company, valued at $5,844,963.97. The trade was a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 56,406 shares of company stock worth $1,734,100 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on YELP shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $32.17.

Yelp Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $30.61 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.86. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.29 and a 52 week high of $41.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.55.

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

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.