Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Raises Stock Holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP – Get Rating) by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,304 shares of the local business review company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,504 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Yelp were worth $790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YELP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,257,853 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $281,675,000 after acquiring an additional 596,879 shares in the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 2,086,809 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $57,951,000 after acquiring an additional 452,005 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 211.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 528,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $14,663,000 after acquiring an additional 358,600 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 848,029 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $23,550,000 after acquiring an additional 223,861 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in Yelp by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,519,344 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $69,962,000 after buying an additional 180,225 shares during the period. 93.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yelp

In other news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.88, for a total transaction of $1,444,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 501,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,135.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.88, for a total transaction of $1,444,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 501,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,135.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Sam Eaton sold 5,547 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $166,410.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 180,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,421,780. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,547 shares of company stock valued at $7,860,270. 7.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YELP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Yelp from $38.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 19th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Yelp in a report on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price target on Yelp from $49.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Yelp from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $34.00 to $23.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 20th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded Yelp from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.38.

Yelp Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Yelp stock opened at $29.58 on Wednesday. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.30 and a 52 week high of $39.26. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $28.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 55.81 and a beta of 1.40.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The local business review company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.01. Yelp had a return on equity of 5.44% and a net margin of 3.40%. The business had revenue of $308.89 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.12 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Yelp Company Profile

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Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various local business 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.