Zacks Research Downgrades Yelp (NYSE:YELP) to Hold

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Evercore cut their target price on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Yelp Trading Up 4.7%

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $21.66 on Tuesday. Yelp has a 1 year low of $19.61 and a 1 year high of $41.22. The company has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $28.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.12.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yelp will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.20, for a total value of $150,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 964,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,348,813.40. This trade represents a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total value of $32,880.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 190,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,230,084.60. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 261,106 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,184. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 157.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,352,000 after buying an additional 154,612 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 0.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,828,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $7,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter worth about $56,000. 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.