Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Yelp from $30.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $25.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Yelp from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $28.50.

Yelp Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:YELP opened at $27.92 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $23.93 and its 200 day moving average is $27.95. Yelp has a 12 month low of $19.60 and a 12 month high of $41.22.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The company 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%. Yelp’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. Research analysts predict that Yelp will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

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, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 227,959 shares in the company, valued at $5,698,975. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.26, for a total transaction of $817,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 756,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,621,045.08. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 216,264 shares of company stock valued at $5,820,193 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Yelp by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 40,633 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,231,000 after acquiring an additional 10,204 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Yelp by 71.3% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,158 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,302 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 464 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Yelp by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,161,711 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $35,304,000 after acquiring an additional 15,849 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new position in Yelp in the fourth quarter valued at $353,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yelp Company 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.