Bristlecone Advisors LLC Takes $1.20 Million Position in Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP)

Bristlecone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 30,932 shares of the local business review company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,197,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in Yelp during the fourth quarter valued at about $161,000. Stephens Inc. AR purchased a new stake in Yelp during the 4th quarter valued at $595,000. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its stake in shares of Yelp by 57.6% during the 4th quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 24,537 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $950,000 after purchasing an additional 8,966 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management raised its holdings in shares of Yelp by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 16,385 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $634,000 after buying an additional 1,812 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Yelp by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 334,962 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $12,963,000 after purchasing an additional 55,782 shares during the last quarter. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YELP opened at $39.57 on Monday. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.56 and a 1-year high of $45.91. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.33.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The local business review company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $360.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $360.74 million. Yelp had a net margin of 8.48% and a return on equity of 16.02%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Yelp Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on YELP. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Yelp from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Yelp from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com raised Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Evercore ISI raised Yelp to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $38.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yelp

In other news, insider Carmen Amara sold 12,854 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.17, for a total transaction of $490,637.18. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 88,813 shares in the company, valued at $3,389,992.21. This represents a 12.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David A. Schwarzbach sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.29, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 211,988 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,117,020.52. This represents a 4.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,865 shares of company stock worth $2,167,768 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

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.