Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.14 EPS

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $358.70 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 10.23%.

Yelp Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of YELP traded down $0.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $22.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,560,698 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,197,292. Yelp has a 52 week low of $22.19 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The stock has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 10.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $28.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.58.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YELP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, January 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group set a $28.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 127,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,881,137.07. The trade was a 9.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.39, for a total transaction of $821,700.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,719,384.62. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 261,106 shares of company stock worth $7,260,184 in the last 90 days. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in Yelp by 399.0% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $24,853,000 after purchasing an additional 579,894 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,144.9% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 48.5% in the second quarter. Man Group plc now owns 741,747 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $25,420,000 after buying an additional 242,213 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,226,666 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $67,666,000 after buying an additional 156,430 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in 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 valued at $9,352,000 after buying an additional 154,612 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Yelp

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.