Yelp Inc. $YELP Shares Sold by Ceera Investments LLC

Ceera Investments LLC trimmed its position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 17.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 192,442 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 40,099 shares during the quarter. Yelp comprises approximately 2.3% of Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $5,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.7% in 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 buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,204 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $219,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 1.2% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC now owns 35,838 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,118,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 19,871 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $604,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 100.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 446 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on YELP. Evercore set a $30.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yelp currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.88.

Yelp Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $22.44 on Tuesday. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.60 and a 52-week high of $39.58. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $25.42 and a 200-day moving average of $26.76.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 227,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,698,975. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $29,664.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 267,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. This represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 27,900 shares of company stock valued at $703,975. Corporate insiders own 8.30% of the company’s stock.

Yelp 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.