Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $643,000 Stock Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,762 shares of the local business review company’s stock after selling 455 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Yelp were worth $643,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of YELP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yelp by 307.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter valued at about $52,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the 1st quarter valued at about $56,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new stake in Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Finally, 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Evercore ISI set a $45.00 price objective on Yelp and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $35.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total value of $37,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 202,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,263,325. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.24, for a total value of $312,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 170,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,316,923.04. This trade represents a 5.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,400 shares of company stock valued at $1,211,130. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Stock Performance

Shares of YELP opened at $33.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.28. Yelp Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.96 and a 52-week high of $41.72. The company has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.36, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.98.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $370.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $365.71 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 10.28%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.54 EPS. Yelp has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.