Stephens Inc. AR Takes $595,000 Position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Stephens Inc. AR acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 15,362 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $595,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Yelp by 115.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 976 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Yelp by 54.5% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,148 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in Yelp by 98.5% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in Yelp by 76.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,094 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Yelp during the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yelp news, CTO Sam Eaton sold 10,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.12, for a total transaction of $377,329.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 122,480 shares in the company, valued at $4,301,497.60. This trade represents a 8.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.29, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 211,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,117,020.52. This trade represents a 4.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,011 shares of company stock worth $1,677,131. 7.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YELP opened at $37.28 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.53. Yelp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.56 and a fifty-two week high of $45.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.33.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.09. Yelp had a net margin of 8.48% and a return on equity of 16.02%. As a group, research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current 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.