Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Acquires 4,361 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 46,523 shares of the local business review company’s stock after buying an additional 4,361 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.07% of Yelp worth $1,801,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 347.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 160,363 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $5,627,000 after buying an additional 124,561 shares during the last quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yelp in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,197,000. Suncoast Equity Management purchased a new stake in Yelp during the fourth quarter valued at about $721,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Yelp by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 366,297 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $14,176,000 after purchasing an additional 10,995 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Yelp by 332.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,195 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 11,678 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yelp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.33.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP opened at $35.76 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.29 and a 1-year high of $41.72. The company has a market capitalization of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.92.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.80, for a total transaction of $348,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,916 shares in the company, valued at $8,453,476.80. This trade represents a 3.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $35,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 211,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,563,198.50. The trade was a 0.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 57,727 shares of company stock worth $2,025,717. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp 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.