Insider Selling: Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) Insider Sells $393,330.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Carmen Amara sold 11,238 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $393,330.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 108,123 shares in the company, valued at $3,784,305. The trade was a 9.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Carmen Amara also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 4th, Carmen Amara sold 1,500 shares of Yelp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $49,740.00.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP stock opened at $34.93 on Thursday. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.56 and a 1-year high of $41.72. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $38.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.67. The company has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.40.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The local business review company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.09. Yelp had a return on equity of 18.07% and a net margin of 9.41%. The firm had revenue of $361.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $350.73 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Yelp by 375.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,331,835 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $51,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,588 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Yelp by 163.4% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 853,867 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $33,045,000 after acquiring an additional 529,667 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Yelp by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,845,575 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $71,424,000 after acquiring an additional 255,775 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Yelp by 70.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 601,632 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $23,283,000 after acquiring an additional 249,231 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Yelp by 87.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 507,990 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $19,659,000 after acquiring an additional 236,400 shares during the period. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.17.

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.