Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Short Interest Update

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 4,030,000 shares, a drop of 14.8% from the February 13th total of 4,730,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 718,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.6 days. Currently, 6.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.51, for a total transaction of $395,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 191,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,585,445.88. The trade was a 4.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Carmen Amara sold 11,238 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $393,330.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 108,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,784,305. The trade was a 9.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,727 shares of company stock valued at $2,083,317 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Yelp by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,815 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Yelp by 82.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 637 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming increased its position in Yelp by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 9,030 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $349,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Yelp by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,767 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Martingale Asset Management L P increased its position in Yelp by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 60,697 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $2,349,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.17.

Yelp Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:YELP opened at $35.43 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $37.53 and a 200-day moving average of $36.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.45, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.40. Yelp has a 12 month low of $32.56 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

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

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.