Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on YELP. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. UBS Group set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 price target on shares of Yelp in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.29.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP opened at $27.34 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.17. Yelp has a 1 year low of $26.96 and a 1 year high of $41.22.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $376.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.39 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 10.23%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Yelp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.62, for a total transaction of $34,344.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 193,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,531,644.98. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 13,500 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $410,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 127,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,881,137.07. This trade represents a 9.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 164,906 shares of company stock valued at $4,729,140. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Comerica Bank lifted its stake in Yelp by 45.8% in the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 57,641 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,752,000 after acquiring an additional 18,098 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp in the 4th quarter valued at $351,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yelp in the 4th quarter valued at $190,000. UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 875,826 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,616,000 after purchasing an additional 151,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yelp during the fourth quarter worth $1,222,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Yelp

Yelp is a digital platform that connects consumers with local businesses through user-generated reviews, ratings and multimedia content. The company’s flagship offerings include the Yelp website and mobile applications for iOS and Android, where users can search for and discover restaurants, shops, service providers and other points of interest. In addition to crowd-sourced reviews and photographs, Yelp provides business profile pages featuring hours, contact information, menus and direct messaging capabilities.

Yelp generates revenue primarily through advertising services sold to small and medium-sized enterprises.