Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 4,269 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC reduced its stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 23.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,814 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 4,269 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Yelp were worth $512,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YELP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 307.4% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 827 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new position in Yelp during the 4th quarter worth about $63,000. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.7% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,725 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 445.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,061 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 1,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Yelp by 78.3% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,585 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 1,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other Yelp news, Director Dan Jedda sold 2,794 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.68, for a total transaction of $99,689.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,363.52. The trade was a 13.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.68, for a total transaction of $356,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 209,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,480,454.72. This represents a 4.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,147,176 in the last three months. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yelp Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:YELP opened at $35.04 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.98. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.29 and a 1-year high of $41.72. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.98.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $353.48 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 19.42%. Yelp’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.00.

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.