Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) COO Sells $253,680.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) COO Joseph R. Nachman sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.24, for a total value of $253,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 288,842 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,467,634.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Yelp Stock Performance

YELP opened at $35.77 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78 and a beta of 1.33. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.76 and a 52-week high of $48.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.91 and its 200-day moving average is $39.90.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The local business review company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $332.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $333.66 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 8.44%. On average, research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YELP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James initiated coverage on Yelp in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Yelp from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum dropped their price target on Yelp from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yelp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.67.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Yelp by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,215,355 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $57,535,000 after purchasing an additional 482,242 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yelp in the fourth quarter valued at about $20,718,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Yelp by 186.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 463,505 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $21,942,000 after purchasing an additional 301,715 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Yelp by 629.6% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 312,510 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $14,794,000 after purchasing an additional 269,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in Yelp in the third quarter valued at about $6,238,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yelp Company 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.