SG Americas Securities LLC Increases Stock Position in Yelp Inc. $YELP

SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) by 858.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,476 shares of the local business review company’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,838 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC owned about 0.07% of Yelp worth $1,352,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YELP. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 553.8% during the third quarter. Optimus Prime Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 850,000 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $26,520,000 after acquiring an additional 720,000 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in shares of Yelp by 399.0% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 725,214 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $24,853,000 after acquiring an additional 579,894 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 1,144.9% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 351,006 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $12,029,000 after purchasing an additional 322,810 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,402,938 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $74,972,000 after purchasing an additional 309,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 49.3% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 823,050 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $25,679,000 after purchasing an additional 271,838 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on YELP. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of 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 increased their target price on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $28.50.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In related news, Director Dan Jedda sold 1,464 shares of Yelp 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 sale, the director owned 17,100 shares in the company, valued at $359,442. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,200 shares of Yelp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.72, for a total transaction of $29,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 267,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,881.20. This trade represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 238,764 shares of company stock worth $6,475,093. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yelp Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE YELP opened at $25.57 on Wednesday. Yelp Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.60 and a 52 week high of $41.22. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $23.87 and its 200 day moving average is $28.19. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.36, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.47.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $359.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $358.70 million. Yelp had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 19.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.62 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Yelp Profile

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.