37,386 Shares in Yelp Inc. $YELP Purchased by Sovran Advisors LLC

Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 37,386 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,090,000. Sovran Advisors LLC owned 0.06% of Yelp as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of YELP. Bfsg LLC lifted its position in shares of Yelp by 110.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 839 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Yelp by 100.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 892 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Yelp during the third quarter worth $55,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Yelp during the first quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Yelp during the 3rd quarter valued at $84,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on YELP shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Yelp from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 target price on Yelp in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.50.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In related news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.02, for a total value of $30,773.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $359,442. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.20, for a total transaction of $150,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 964,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,348,813.40. This represents a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 238,764 shares of company stock worth $6,475,093 over the last 90 days. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yelp Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE YELP opened at $25.12 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $23.96 and a 200 day moving average of $28.28. Yelp Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.60 and a twelve month high of $41.22.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $358.70 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 19.96% and a net margin of 9.94%.Yelp’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.62 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.