Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CTO Sells 21,989 Shares of Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CTO Sam Eaton sold 21,989 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.70, for a total transaction of $785,007.30. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 153,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,467,776.30. This represents a 12.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Sam Eaton also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 2nd, Sam Eaton sold 267 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.06, for a total transaction of $10,162.02.

Yelp Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE YELP traded down $0.41 on Monday, reaching $35.31. 756,914 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 676,784. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $39.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.33. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.56 and a fifty-two week high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. Yelp had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The firm had revenue of $361.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $350.73 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upgraded Yelp to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Yelp from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.17.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Yelp by 13.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 654,059 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $22,944,000 after acquiring an additional 78,585 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yelp by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,743,899 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $96,256,000 after purchasing an additional 48,363 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings 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 worth $5,627,000 after purchasing an additional 124,561 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the 3rd quarter worth about $732,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC increased its position in shares of Yelp by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 204,077 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $7,159,000 after purchasing an additional 14,213 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

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.