Arizona State Retirement System Sells 511 Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Arizona State Retirement System cut its holdings in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,936 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 511 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Yelp were worth $664,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 307.4% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the 4th quarter worth $63,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 631 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Yelp in the first quarter worth $203,000. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.68, for a total value of $346,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 199,654 shares in the company, valued at $6,924,000.72. The trade was a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.34, for a total value of $34,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 213,720 shares in the company, valued at $7,339,144.80. The trade was a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,150,876. Insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YELP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.00.

Yelp Trading Up 1.2%

YELP opened at $34.87 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.60. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.29 and a 1 year high of $41.72. The stock has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Yelp 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.