6,985 Shares in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Bought by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. bought a new position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 6,985 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $259,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 307.4% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 827 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the 4th quarter valued at about $63,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of Yelp by 57.7% during the 1st 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 period. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Yelp by 78.3% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,585 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135 shares during the period. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter valued at about $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In related news, CTO Sam Eaton sold 12,904 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total transaction of $492,674.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 145,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,538,543.52. This represents a 8.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total transaction of $346,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 199,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,924,000.72. This represents a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,150,876. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of YELP stock opened at $34.45 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.62. The company has a market cap of $2.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.98. Yelp Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.29 and a 12 month high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Yelp had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 19.42%. The company had revenue of $358.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $353.48 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. Yelp’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YELP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on 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 upgraded Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.