Vanguard Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Vanguard Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,916,793 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 63,866 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 13.71% of Yelp worth $330,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,924,457 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $74,477,000 after buying an additional 164,149 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Yelp by 122.8% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,902,318 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $70,443,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048,451 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Yelp by 375.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $51,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,588 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Yelp by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 752,742 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $29,131,000 after acquiring an additional 57,610 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 650,433 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $25,172,000 after acquiring an additional 9,810 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YELP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total transaction of $35,230.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 212,720 shares in the company, valued at $7,494,125.60. The trade was a 0.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total value of $346,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 199,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,924,000.72. This represents a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,151,656 in the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yelp Trading Down 0.6%

YELP stock opened at $30.95 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 12-month low of $29.96 and a 12-month high of $41.72. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s 50-day moving average is $34.35 and its 200 day moving average is $35.76.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.19. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 10.28%. The company had revenue of $370.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $365.71 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. Yelp’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Yelp

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.