Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s What Happened

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) hit a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $32.56 and last traded at $33.06, with a volume of 148781 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $32.84.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Yelp Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.92.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yelp news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.51, for a total transaction of $395,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 191,988 shares in the company, valued at $7,585,445.88. This trade represents a 4.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.40, for a total value of $38,400.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 182,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,010,227.20. The trade was a 0.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 57,727 shares of company stock worth $2,081,667 in the last quarter. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yelp during the third quarter worth about $293,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,553,227 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $89,567,000 after acquiring an additional 23,719 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $264,000. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Yelp by 347.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 160,363 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $5,627,000 after acquiring an additional 124,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Yelp by 3.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,229 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $61,724,000 after purchasing an additional 64,381 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.