Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s What Happened
by Danessa Lincoln · The Markets DailyShares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP – Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $19.60 and last traded at $19.6950, with a volume of 478600 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $20.20.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages recently weighed in on YELP. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Zacks Research cut Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Evercore cut their price objective on Yelp from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $28.50.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Yelp
Yelp Price Performance
The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 0.55.
Yelp (NYSE:YELP – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $359.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp
In other news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total transaction of $30,773.28. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $359,442. This represents a 7.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 6,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.20, for a total transaction of $150,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 964,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,348,813.40. The trade was a 0.64% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 252,459 shares of company stock valued at $6,994,849. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yelp
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,161,711 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $35,304,000 after acquiring an additional 15,849 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Yelp by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,302 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new stake in Yelp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $353,000. Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 142,943 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $4,344,000 after purchasing an additional 19,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yelp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $289,000. 90.11% of the stock is 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.