Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 23,449 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 468,495 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 23,449 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.72% of Yelp worth $17,348,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State of Wyoming lifted its stake in Yelp by 3.5% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Yelp by 5.3% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 60,697 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,349,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 124,016 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $4,799,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.7% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,725 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 631 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.34, for a total transaction of $34,340.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 213,720 shares in the company, valued at $7,339,144.80. This represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Sam Eaton sold 12,904 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total transaction of $492,674.72. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 145,064 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,538,543.52. The trade was a 8.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,150,876. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP opened at $34.45 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.29 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.32 and its 200 day moving average is $36.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.98.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The local business review company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $358.53 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $353.48 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 19.42%. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on YELP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.00.

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.